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The Hudson Library 


A SERIES OF GOOD FICTION BY AUTHORS FROM EACH 
SIDE OF THE ATLANTIC. 


Published Monthly. Entered as second-class matter. 
Yearly Subscription, $6.00 per volume, paper, 50 cents. 
Published also in cloth. 

1. Love and Shawl-straps. By Annette Lucille Noble. 

2. Miss Hurd : An Enigma. By Anna Katharine 

Green, Author of “ The Leavenworth Case." 

3. How Thankful was Bewitched. By Jas. K. Hosmer. 

4. A Woman of Impulse. By Justin Huntly McCarthy. 

5. The Countess Bettina ; The History of an Innocent 

Scandal. By Clinton Ross. 

6. Her Majesty. 1 By E. K. Tompkins. Author of “ An 

Unlessoned Girl,” etc. 

7. God Forsaken. By Frederic Breton. 

8. An Island Princess. By Theodore Gift. 

9. Elizabeth’s Pretenders. By Hamilton Aide. * 

10. At Tuxter’s. By G. B. Burgin. 

11. Cherryfield Hall: An Episode in the Career of an 

Adventuress. By F. H. Balfour. 

12. The Crime of the Century. By Rodrigues Otto- 

lengui, Author of “ An Artist in Crime,” etc. 

13. The Things that Matter. By Francis Gribble. 

14. The Heart of Life. By W. H. Mallock. 

15. The Broken Ring. By Elizabeth K. Tompkins. 

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, Publishers, 


NEW YORK AND LONDON. 


THE BROKEN RING 

A ROMANCE 


BY 

ELIZABETH KNIGHT TOMPKINS 

'I 

Author of “ Her Majesty,” “An Unlessoned Girl,” etc. 



0* r, Hr 

[JJJM % im i 


wash'H^ 


p 


G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK LONDON 

27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 

&\>t f»mthtrbotktr $Jrtss 

* 1896 


Copyright, 1896 
BY 

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 
Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London 


Ube ftnfcfeerbocfcer press, Hew IRocbelle, H. E 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I. — The Princess Has her own Way . 

II. — And Suffers the Consequences 

III. — On the Wing 

IV. — Romance versus Reality 

V. — General Malakoff Makes a Communication 

VI. — The Scene Changes .... 

VII. — In the Mountains . . . . 

VIII. — Peace is Declared 

IX. — Royal Interviews 

X. — What the Parrot Said 

XI. — An Ambassador 

XII. — The Princess Surrenders . 

XIII. — The Coronation of King Karl 


PAGE 

I 

23 

40 

62 

87 

108 

128 

145 

171 

197 

223 

245 

264 












































































THE BROKEN RING. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE PRINCESS HAS HER OWN WAY. 

“ T T is my wish,” said the Princess Le- 
nore. Her coachman made a very 
faint protest with his shoulders and, 
with a silent prayer to his favorite saint, 
turned his horses to the left and took the 
road through Konigreich. This was the 
first time he had ever driven Her High- 
ness, but he recognized the finality of her 
words as thoroughly as the courier on the 
box beside him, or the maid who occupied 
the seat opposite the Princess, both of 
whom had been for months in Her High- 
ness’s service. 

“Ah, this is better!” exclaimed the 


2 


The Broken Ring. 


Princess, as the road wound upward from 
the dusty valley and entered the shadow 
of the pine forest. “We save fully five 
miles by going this way, and the road 
through Neutralstadt is so intolerably 
long and uninteresting that I vowed I 
would never go over it again,” she went 
on, apparently addressing Louison, but 
really trying to justify her wilfulness to 
herself, for making a criticism on her 
royal mistress’s conduct was the last thing 
the stolid woman on the seat opposite her 
would have thought of doing. “ Besides,” 
she continued, “ I don’t believe we shall 
meet a single soldier in this out-of-the- 
way corner, and if we do, I am certain 
they will not molest us. We live in the 
nineteenth century, I am happy to say, 
and taking women prisoners is rather out 
of date. We shall be in Konigreich only 
about an hour at the most,” she con- 
cluded, dismissing the subject with a ges- 
ture in the royal style. 

The road wound slowly upward, getting 
deeper and deeper into the forest, and the 
Princess soon forgot the fears that she 


The Princess Has her own Way. 3 

knew she ought to be feeling in her en- 
joyment of the drive. The season was 
late spring, and the loveliness which had 
already become a little shop-worn in the 
valleys was here displayed fresh from the 
manufactory. At every bend a little 
stream crossed the road ; sometimes there 
was a bridge, but generally they drove 
through the shining water which often 
came to the hubs of the wheels. The 
horses splashed it around them and, with 
checks loosened for the upward climb, 
dipped their noses deep in, long after 
their thirst was satisfied. The Princess 
would not have them hurried. 

“You see how deserted this road is,” 
she explained to her anxious coachman. 
“ The grass is actually growing in the 
wheel tracks, and once we get to the top, 
we can go very rapidly the rest of the 
way. We shall be in Neutralstadt again 
in a very short time. If it were not for 
crossing the streams, I would get out and 
walk,” she added. More alarmed than 
ever at these last words, the man whipped 
up his horses, and before long they were 


4 


The Broken Ring. 


at the top of the pass, with a glorious 
prospect of hill and valley on all sides of 
them. 

“ Look, Louison, that is the way we 
would have gone if we had obeyed in- 
structions,” said the Princess, pointing 
out to her maid the long, flat, and unin- 
teresting detour at their feet. “ How 
much better this is ! ” she exclaimed, as 
the horses began the descent, feeling that 
she would like to scream or sing or let go 
in someway or other, as she felt the rapid 
motion and the breeze in her face made 
by their going, for the day was breathless. 
“ How hot and dusty it must be down 
there ! ” she went on. 

As she spoke, the horses swung around 
an abrupt bend in the road and came to a 
standstill as quickly as the momentum 
they had gained would let them ; for there 
in a level bit of ground was an encamp- 
ment of half a dozen tents, and the road 
directly in front of them was occupied by 
a detachment of soldiers in the dull blue 
of the Konigreich uniform. The soldiers 
were less surprised, for they had evidently 


The Princess Has her own Way. 5 

heard them coming. Four of them flew 
to the horses’ heads, and one who had 
been standing apart, apparently an officer 
and the leader of the little party, stepped 
forward and saluted. He was a rough- 
looking young man in a big felt hat, with 
a week’s growth of beard on his chin. The 
Princess lowered her veil and said, haugh- 
tily, motioning to the man on the box : 

“ My courier has our passports, if that 
is what you wish.” 

“ I am sorry to trouble you, Madam,” 
the young man replied, as he took the 
passports. 

“ They appear to be quite regular,” he 
said, when he had examined them care- 
fully ; and before handing them back, he 
took another look at the Princess, appar- 
ently to see if her description tallied with 
that of the Mme. Ferrand in the passport, 
for this was the name under which she 
always travelled. As he looked an ex- 
pression of complete surprise crossed his 
face, and he uttered an exclamation under 
his breath. Then, holding out his hand 
to assist her, he said calmly : 


6 


The Broken Ring. 


“ Princess, I shall have to trouble you to 
get out.” There was such an air of calm 
certainty about him that the Princess knew 
that no denial of her identity would be of 
any use, even if she could make up her 
mind to utter one. 

“ May I ask what is the meaning of 
this ?” she said instead, in the most royal 
of manners. 

“Your papers pass Mme. Ferrand, not 
the Princess Lenore of Herzogthum,” he 
explained composedly, and repeated his 
request that she would alight, adding : 
“ My name is Delorme and I am a cap- 
tain in the Konigreich army.” 

“ And what do you intend to do with 
us ? ” she demanded haughtily. 

“I shall take Your Highness to the 
headquarters of the army,” he replied, 
with the utmost self-possession. One 
would have thought he was in the habit 
of daily intercourse with princesses. Le- 
nore wanted to inquire why he made her 
get out of the carriage then, but her pride 
would not let her ask any more questions, 
and, taking no notice of his offer of assist- 


The Princess Has her own Way . 7 

ance, she stepped to the ground and stood 
awaiting further orders. 

“Will Your Highness have the good- 
ness to come over here,” he continued,' 
leading the way to the last tent in the 
encampment. There he stood aside and 
motioned her to enter. “ I am sorry I 
have no chair to offer Your Highness,” 
he said. 

“It makes no difference,” the Princess 
replied coldly. 

“ I will leave Your Highness here then 
till we are ready to start, which will be in 
about half an hour. Is there anything I 
can do for Your Highness’s comfort?” 

“ I should like my maid,” she replied. 

The young man bowed, picked up some 
saddle-bags that lay already packed on the 
ground, and left the room. In a minute 
she was joined by Louison. 

“ Well, Louison,” said the Princess, 
looking up from the foot of the camp-bed 
on which she had seated herself, “ I seem 
to have got us into trouble.” 

“It is Your Highness that will suffer 
for it ; but, with Your Highness’s per- 


8 


The Broken Ring. 


mission, I will pray to Our Lady that we 
may be quickly released.” 

“ Certainly, if it will be any comfort to 
you,” answered the Princess. The maid 
retired to a corner of the tent and, sink- 
ing on her knees, began to tell her beads 
in an absorption that took no notice of 
surroundings. Her mistress, having noth- 
ing else to do, took a look around the 
tent in the hope of finding out something 
about the character of her captor ; but 
there was absolutely nothing to see except 
the bare sides and the bed on which she 
sat. 

Captain Delorme had said half an hour, 
but it was fully an hour before he appeared 
again and requested her to accompany 
him. Everything was packed up ready 
for a start, as the noises she had been lis- 
tening to had led her to expect. The 
young man placed her and Louison in her 
carriage, which now had two soldiers on 
the box. The Princess looked around 
for her own men, but did not see them. 
Here she sat while the tent in which she 
had been was pulled down and piled on 


The Princess Has her own Way . 9 

the baggage wagon, the work of a few 
minutes ; and then they started down the 
road, a detachment of mounted soldiers 
in front and their Captain riding beside 
her whenever the road was wide enough 
to permit it. 

The Princess felt decidedly uncom- 
fortable, not because she had any par- 
ticular fear of what was to happen to her, 
but because it had been her own wilful- 
ness that had put them in this predica- 
ment. It was not by any means the first 
time that unpleasant consequences had 
happened from her love of having her 
own way, but they had never before been 
so serious. What a fool she had been to 
go into the enemy’s country, with no 
necessity on her stronger than a dislike 
of dust and monotony and an intense love 
of romantic scenery. Esthetic consider- 
ations had no place in war-time. She 
was glad that her men were out of sight, 
for she could fancy the indignation that 
her coachman, whose courage was evi- 
dently not his strong point, was feeling 
towards her, and was sure that no respect 


io The Broken Ring. 

for her rank would keep them entirely 
out of his expression. As for Louison, 
so long as she was allowed to say her 
prayers in peace, no earthly happenings 
could move her even to regrets. “ It is 
the will of God, Your Highness,” was the 
unvarying formula on all occasions. Her 
mistress often wondered if she ever had 
an acute realization of what was going on 
in the world around, and whether her 
vivid interest in her spiritual life did not 
overshadow all bodily sensations to such 
an extent that she was hardly conscious 
of them. She was gazing now at the bot- 
tom of the carriage with a rapt, unseeing 
expression of countenance, and by the 
slight movement of her lips the Princess 
knew she was still praying for their de- 
liverance out of the hands of their ene- 
mies. She herself raised her eyes and 
they fell on Captain Delorme, who was 
riding beside the carriage, a little in front 
of where she was sitting. She noticed 
a decided change for the better in his 
appearance. He still wore his flannel 
shirt and undress uniform, decidedly the 


The Princess Has her own Way . 1 1 

worse for wear, but he had found means 
to shave himself and to tidy himself up 
generally until he looked like a different 
man. She now made the discovery, which 
she would not have suspected on his first 
appearance, that he was unusually good- 
looking, with a clear skin, regular feat- 
ures, and a serious, somewhat severe 
expression. She had just come to this 
conclusion, when his face changed, an 
expression of intense amusement came 
over it, his eyes sparkled with fun, the 
severe lines relaxed, and he looked like an 
entirely different person and at least half 
a dozen years younger. The Princess 
followed the direction of his eyes in time 
to see a mule, that one of the soldiers was 
riding, in the act of taking a vicious nip 
out of the hind-quarters of the horse in 
front of him. Retaliation quickly fol- 
lowed, and it was some seconds before 
peace was established. 

Captain Delorme turned to the Prin- 
cess with a smile still on his face. 

“ It is astonishing what an intense dis- 
like that mule has for that particular 


12 


The Broken Ring. 


horse. They never can be left near each 
other,” he explained as her eyes met his. 

“ Indeed,” she replied coldly, without 
the slightest trace of amusement in her 
manner. The lines of the young man’s 
face stiffened up again, he looked straight 
ahead of him and did not attempt any 
more conversation. At first the Princess 
was angry at his presumption in address- 
ing her at all without being spoken to ; 
but presently she wished she had not 
been quite so short, for they had reached 
the point where their road turned back 
into Neutralstadt and had taken a cross- 
road that she had never travelled before, 
and there were various inquiries she 
would have liked to have made. 

They drove deeper and deeper into the 
forest, which was an especial characteris- 
tic of the upper portions of Konigreich ; 
the day fulfilled its promise ; not a cloud 
toned down the intense blue of the sky ; 
in the open country it was probably very 
warm, but here in the depths of the forest 
it was cool and comfortable even at noon. 
As they drove, the Princess almost forgot 


The Princess Has her own Way . 1 3 

her situation in her intense admiration of 
the beauty around her. She was longing 
to alight and get a little closer to it when 
Captain Delorme’s voice broke upon her 
abstraction. 

“ If you would like to get out and walk 
a little, Princess, we will rest the horses,” 
he said considerately. She turned and 
looked at him, still full of her enjoyment, 
for she had forgotten his existence. Be- 
fore she spoke, however, it all came back 
to her. The look of delight faded out of 
her eyes and was replaced by one of 
chilling indifference as she said, repres- 
sing a great desire to lay hands on a little 
close, delicate green vine that was carpet- 
ing the ground : 

“No, I thank you, Captain Delorme. 
There are too many spectators.” He 
bowed and rode on, but the Princess 
did not lose herself again. She began to 
be conscious of feeling intensely hungry 
and decidedly irritable in consequence, 
and wished that the Captain would speak 
to her again, so that she could let out a 
little of it on him. She wondered if she 


14 The Broken Ring, 

was not to have anything to eat until she 
reached their destination, which she knew 
to be still a long distance off. About one 
o’clock, however, her anxieties were re- 
lieved by hearing Captain Delorme call a 
halt in an opening in the forest, by the 
side of one of the many little streams that 
always brought up Konigreich to the 
Princess’s mind. Refusing the Captain’s 
suggestion that she get out, she sat still 
in the carriage, from which the horses had 
been taken out, and watched the soldiers 
prepare their meal, which consisted of ba- 
con, very solid bread, and coffee without any 
milk. At an order from the Captain, one 
of the soldiers brought to her and Louison 
their portions on the two brightest tin 
plates which their outfit contained. He 
was the Sergeant of the troop, and had a 
kindly, good-natured face. The Princess 
was pleased to be most gracious in her 
reception of him and his offerings. 

“ It is very poor fare for Your High- 
ness,” he remarked apologetically. 

“ It is certainly better than nothing,” 
she answered, with a smile, wishing she 


The Princess Has her own Way. 1 5 

could store up her present appetite for 
some occasion when there would be 
greater demands on it. 

They rested their horses for an hour or 
more, and then started on their journey 
again. As before, Captain Delorme rode 
a little in advance of the carriage, but he 
did not give her either a word or a look. 
Probably on this account, his clear-cut 
profile began to acquire an interest for the 
Princess that it had not heretofore had, 
and she found her eyes constantly coming 
back to it, while she wondered what he 
could be thinking of so intently, and if he 
were never going to speak to her again. 
At length she grew so tired that she had 
no attention left either for him or for the 
country through which they were travel- 
ling, and she lay back in a corner of the 
carriage with her eyes shut, conscious of 
nothing but the fact that she was intensely 
wretched, and wishing devoutly that she 
had had common -sense enough to keep 
out of danger. 

It was nearly dark before they reached 
their destination, the headquarters of the 


1 6 The Broken Ring. 

army of Konigreich, temporarily estab- 
lished in a farm-house not very far from 
the frontier of her father’s province, the 
Duchy of Herzogthum, where the seat of 
the war was at that time. I n spite of her fa- 
tigue, she had been conscious that Captain 
Delorme, some minutes before their ar- 
rival, had spurred on his tired horse and 
had ridden ahead of the troop, Sergeant 
Kriegmann taking his place at her side. 
When they drove up in front of the farm- 
house in the midst of a cloud of dust 
so thick that almost none of their sur- 
roundings were visible, an elderly man in 
uniform came out on the steps attended 
by several younger officers. The soldiers 
saluted, and by his likeness to his pictures, 
the Princess knew that this was the Com- 
mander-in-chief of the Konigreich army, 
the great General Malakoff, who stood 
uncovered before her. She had been 
wondering all day if she should see him. 
He came up to the side of the carriage 
and offered her his hand to alight. 

“ I regret exceedingly that this was 
necessary, Princess,” he said, with an air 
of grave courtesy. 


The Princess Has her own Way . 1 7 

The Princess was so tired and so dis- 
gusted with life generally that she longed 
to be ungracious, but there was something 
in the General’s manner that forced her to 
be as polite as he had been. 

“ What are you going to do with me, 
now that you have captured me?” she 
asked, with the ghost of a smile. 

“We shall have to think about that. 
Nothing very dreadful, I am sure. What 
can I do for Your Highness now ?” 

“ Only let me have something to eat 
and a place to go to bed in, and I shall be 
satisfied,” she answered as, slowly and 
painfully, she stepped down to the ground. 

“Your Highness is very tired,” he said 
sympathetically, and, offering his arm, he 
conducted her into what had evidently 
been the best parlor of the farm-house. 

“ Not so tired as stiff from sitting so 
long,” she answered. 

“ It is all extremely rough and primi- 
tive, but we will do the best we can. 
Your Highness’s room, such as it is, will 
be ready in a moment,” he continued, 
seating her in the least uncomfortable 
chair the room contained. 


1 8 The Broken Ring . 

The Princess suspected that it was 
General Malakoffs own room that they 
gave her, although there were no indica- 
tions of rank in the bare room into which 
she was presently conducted. Here Loui- 
son brought her some supper of a decid- 
edly better quality than the meal she had 
eaten that noon, and, goingstraight to bed 
in the hard and narrow little camp-bed 
that occupied one corner of the room, 
she soon forgot her troubles in sleep, in 
spite of the subdued murmur of voices 
that came from the next room for a long 
time after she had laid her head on the 
pillow. 

If she could have looked through the 
thin partition, she would have discovered 
General Malakoff sitting in front of the 
open window, with a candle on a table 
beside him, around which moths, May- 
bugs, and various fowls of the air were 
flitting. He seemed lost in thought, but 
presently he roused himself and rang the 
bell which also stood on the table beside 
him, and gave an order to the soldier who 
answered it ; 


The Princess Has her own Way. 1 9 


“ See why Captain Delorme does not 
come to me.” 

A few minutes later the young man 
entered. 

“ Excuse me, General,” he said easily, 
and without any of the excessive defer- 
ence which the other officers paid their 
great commander. “ I was so dirty that 
it took me a long time to get clean, and 
I thought I should never get epough to 
eat. We have been on short commons 
lately.” He had changed his old clothes 
for the uniform of a staff-officer on Gen- 
eral Malakoffs personal staff, and this 
made a still greater improvement in his 
looks over his first appearance on the 
scene. 

“ Well, what ’s the news ?” the General 
asked familiarly. “ And what are we to 
do with Her Highness?” he continued, 
when Delorme had given his report, end- 
ing up with the account of the capture of 
the Princess. His manner was not in the 
least such as one would expect from the 
Commander-in-chief of the army towards 
a simple captain, 


20 


The Broken Ring, 


“ What have you thought of doing?” 
demanded the young man in his turn. 

“ I suppose the appropriate thing is to 
send her to the Capital ” 

“ But you don’t want to do that,” in- 
terrupted Delorme. “ For one thing, if 
the King were to see her, he would prob- 
ably send her directly home with an escort 
and an apology — he is perfectly capable 
of it, — and we would lose the advantage 
of having her royal person in our hands.” 

“ That is very true ; still you might as 
well give your real reason, Raoul.” They 
both laughed at this, and then there was 
a short silence, which the younger man 
was the first to break. 

“ General.” 

“ My boy.” 

'‘You know that old mill where I was 
last month ? It is strong enough to stand 
any ordinary attack, and so out of the 
way that nobody would find it unless they 
went out especially to look for it.” 

“ And you think that would be a good 
place to take your Princess to ? Is n’t it 
very rough ? ” 


The Princess Has her own Way. 2 1 

“ It could be made habitable.” 

“It is clearly my duty to send her to 
the Capital,” remonstrated the General. 

“ General Malakoff’s wish is his duty,” 
remarked Delorme. Then he added in 
an entirely different tone : “ Besides, you 
know, you can think up some plausible 
reason why it would not have done to 
send her there.” 

“ I don’t know about that,” the General 
replied. “If I did send her to the mill, 
I suppose Lindsay would be a good man 
to put in charge of her,” he continued. 

“Lindsay!” exclaimed the Captain, 
contemptuously. 

“You surely don’t suppose I ’d give it 
to a boy like you, Raoul?” The young 
man laughed. 

“Do you think you can tease me?” 
he demanded. “No, General, this is a 
direct interposition of Providence, and 
you must n’t try to thwart it.” 

“ I am an utter fool and deserve to be 
kicked out of the army, but I suppose you 
will have your own way as usual,” the 
General remarked affectionately. “Take 


22 


The Broken Ring. 


your Princess then, and carry her off to 
the mill, and make love to her or do any- 
thing else you like, so that you do it dis- 
creetly and don’t let her escape or get me 
into any trouble.” The Captain frowned. 

“ There won’t be much love-making,” 
he said, shaking his head. “I doubt if 
she favors me with a civil word. I am 
the dust under her feet.” 

“ You think her as attractive as you did 
in Paris then ? ” demanded the General. 

“ Well, she suits me,” the young man 
replied tranquilly. If only the Princess 
could have heard him ! 

“ How I do spoil you, Raoul. I cer- 
tainly ought to send her to the Capital,” 
remarked the General. 

“ You have a great deal to answer for,” 
Delorme replied, with mock severity. u I 
might have been a very decent fellow if I 
had been brought up better.” 

“ Well, you suit me,” said General 
Malakoff, laying his hand on the young 
man’s shoulder. 


CHAPTER II. 


AND SUFFERS THE CONSEQUENCES. 

T HE Princess Lenore awoke the next 
morning from so sound a sleep 
that it was fully two minutes be- 
fore she could decide where she was and 
could realize what had happened to her. 
She was quite rested, being young and 
strong enough to sleep off almost any fa- 
tigue in a long night. Her position did 
not seem so utterly hopeless, either, for 
she felt sure that not even General Mala- 
koff would dare to detain her long. She 
would soon be given her freedom, perhaps 
that very day, and she was not sorry for 
a chance to see a little something of that 
world-renowned soldier and diplomat. 
Next her thoughts wandered to the young 
Captain who had taken her prisoner, and 
she reflected that she would not mind 


23 


24 - 


The Broken Ring, 


having an opportunity to impress him a 
little, he had seemed so singularly un- 
appreciative of the importance of the 
Princess Lenore of Herzogthum. The 
Princess Lenore of Herzogthum was 
herein slightly inconsistent ; for when in 
the midst of the flattery and subserviency 
with which she was ordinarily surrounded 
she was pleased to play the radical and to 
rail a little against the excessive homage 
paid to her rank. An inconvenient recol- 
lection of this little fact thrust itself into 
her mind as she lay there in her hard, 
narrow bed, her cheeks still flushed by 
the heavy sleep she- had enjoyed ; but she 
put it hastily aside for fear it might make 
her forego some part of the lesson that 
she intended for Captain Delorme. The 
Princess Lenore had learned by experience 
to be afraid of the power of her own logic 
in forcing her into courses of action di- 
rectly contrary to what she wanted to do. 
At the present moment, although she told 
herself repeatedly that it was beneath her 
dignity to concern herself with what Cap- 
tain Delorme did or left undone, or even 


And Suffers the Consequences . 25 

to notice his lapses, she was conscious of 
distinctly wanting to teach him a lesson. 
The entrance of Louison broke up these 
schemes of revenge. 

All that day she sat in her room, listen- 
ing to the bustle that was going on out- 
side. She could see almost nothing from 
her window, which was on the side of the 
house. Messengers on horseback seemed 
to be coming and going all day ; the rat- 
tling of spurs and the clanking of swords 
were heard continually in the passage out- 
side her door ; the sound of orders given 
in peremptory tones, but whose purport 
she could not understand, came through 
the windows. What was taking place ? 
Were the Herzogthum and the Konigreich 
armies still occupied in watching one an- 
other’s movements, or had they actually 
come to an engagement ? Towards even- 
ing, she could not stand the suspense any 
longer, and sent Louison out to make in- 
quiries. She was gone so long that the 
Princess grew frightened and stepped out 
into the passage herself. Nobody was in 
sight except a sentinel in the momentary 


26 


The Broken Ring. 


glimpses she had of him through the open 
door as he passed to and fro in front of 
the house. She stood there for fully ten 
minutes, when a door at the end of the 
passage opened and Captain Delorme 
came towards her, looking in his trim 
uniform a different man from her com- 
panion of yesterday. The Princess was 
so alarmed by this time that she forgot 
her offended dignity. 

“ Captain Delorme, will you tell me 
what is going on ? ” she demanded, with- 
out taking the time to respond to his salu- 
tation. The young man hesitated, then 
said : 

“ There has been an engagement, Prin- 
cess.” 

“ Which side got the best of it ? ” she 
asked as calmly as she could. The Cap- 
tain hesitated again. 

“ It was not decisive,” he replied at 
length without looking at her. 

“ I suppose you do not like to say you 
were beaten,” exclaimed the Princess, 
impulsively, for her long suspense had af- 
fected her nerves and, consequently, her 


And Suffers the Consequences. 27 

temper. No sooner had she said this 
than it occurred to her that his consider- 
ation was probably on her account, not 
his own. She was ashamed of her words 
and would have given a great deal to re- 
call them, which made her go on to add 
insult to injury by saying : 

“You do not care about fighting, I 
see.” The young man’s eyes flashed 
lightning, but he only remarked calmly : 

“ It was over before we knew anything 
about it,” and deliberately turning his 
back on her, he walked down the passage 
and out of the door, leaving her standing 
there, annoyed at him, but more so at 
herself. She had not taken the best 
means of teaching him respect for her 
rank and her person ; but he certainly was 
most provoking with his nonchalance and 
calm manner of passing over her words 
as of no account. 

Her mind was diverted from this un- 
pleasant subject by the appearance of 
Louison, full of particulars of the engage- 
ment, obtained from Sergeant Kriegmann. 
He had been less considerate than his 


28 


The Broken Ring. 


Captain and had given her what claimed 
to be an accurate account of a defeat a 
division of the Herzogthum army had 
suffered at the hands of his countrymen. 

The Princess passed the rest of the 
day in a state of intense anxiety. In the 
evening, word was brought her that Gen- 
eral Malakoff desired an interview. She 
rose to her feet as he entered the room. 

“ I regret to learn, Princess,” he began 
when he had made some inquiries about 
her health and comfort, — “ I regret to 
learn that you have been told about the 
engagement between our troops this 
morning.” The Princess stretched out 
her hands towards him. Her day of 
anxiety had made her so nervous that she 
thought she could not stand any more 
suspense. 

“Tell me the worst,” she implored. 
General Malakoff looked at her kindly as 
he replied : 

“ I am afraid that you heard the exag- 
gerated reports that came first. It was 
nothing of any importance, not a dozen 
men killed on either side ; and although 


And Suffers the Consequences . 29 

we got rather the best of it, it was not of 
any consequence to either side.” 

The Princess sank down on a chair. 

“ Are you telling me the exact truth ?” 
she demanded. 

“ On my honor as a soldier — as it is 
known to me,” answered the General. 
She laid her arms on the back of her 
chair and buried her face in them, com- 
pletely overcome. In a minute she raised 
it again. The General had supposed she 
was weeping, but there were no traces of 
tears on her cheek. 

“Won’t you sit down?” she asked, 
with a complete resumption of her or 
dinary manner. Her visitor seated him- 
self opposite her. 

“ I have been on horseback all day,” 
he said, half apologetically ; then con- 
tinued : “ I suppose, Princess, you have 
been wondering what we are going to do 
with you.” The Princess bowed assent 
and the General continued : “ There are 
reasons why it seems best not to send you 
home at once, so I am going to detain 
you for a little while ; — not here, we have 


30 


The Broken Ring. 


not suitable accommodations for you here, 
but in a place I have selected. We will 
do our best to make you comfortable and 
will not impose any restrictions that do 
not seem absolutely necessary.” The 
Princess looked at him with a half smile 
on her lips as she said : 

“ I am your prisoner, and of course you 
can do what you please with me.” The 
man before her was of such world-wide 
importance that she could not resent 
treatment from him that she would have 
resented from a lesser person. She did 
not feel at all inclined to treat him as an 
enemy, for she had read of him and ad- 
mired him long before there was any 
question of hostilities between his country 
and hers. Indeed, it was only within the 
last few years that he had taken the com- 
mand of the army of Konigreich, his 
native land, and his reputation had been 
gained in other countries. Nobody quite 
understood what made him accept his 
present position, when much greater op- 
portunities for distinguishing himself were 
open to him than any this little kingdom 


And Suffers the Consequences . 3 1 

offered. Nevertheless, since he had been 
at the head of military affairs, Konigreich 
had steadily been elevating herself in the 
estimation of the world until she prom- 
ised to leave her old rival Herzogthum 
far behind her. The present war was a 
last effort of Herzogthum’s to hold her 
own. 

“ I hope it will not make you have any 
personal feeling against me,” said the 
General, with a charm of manner that 
few persons could resist when he chose to 
exert it. “Your Highness must dis- 
tinguish between me in my official and in 
my private capacity. When this little 
affair is happily settled, I hope I shall 
have an opportunity to pay my respects 
to Your Highness.” 

“ I suppose I ought to hate you,” said 
the Princess, with a smile. “ It is dread- 
fully unorthodox not to ; but in order to 
hate your enemies with the correct amount 
of ferocity you must never know them. 
They say that railroads and telegraphs are 
doing away with patriotism, and while I 
don’t believe that, I do think they are do- 


3 2 


The Broken Ring. 


stroying the animosity towards foreigners 
that often used to go with patriotism.” 

“Your Highness is quite right,” re- 
plied the General. “ And it is travel that 
is going to put an end to war even more 
than the improvements in fire-arms. You 
can’t get up the proper thirst for the 
blood of an enemy with whom you dined 
and went to the theatre the week before. 
Cosmopolitanism and race prejudice don’t 
go together, and the decrease of the latter 
is just another name for humanitarianism, 
and once you are inoculated with that, 
you don’t care much for human targets 
for your bullets.” 

“ Then it really is not necessary I should 
hate you in order to show my love for my 
country ? I am glad of that,” said the 
Princess, smiling as she added : “ General 
Malakoff’s name has always had a great 
interest for me.” 

“ I used to know the Duke and the late 
Duchess, your Highness’s mother, fairly 
well,” remarked the General. “ And your 
godmother, Queen Lenore,” he added. 

“ I have heard so,” replied the Princess, 


And Suffers the Consequences . 33 

and then wished she had not said that, 
for the reports that had come to her ears 
were not such as one would refer to 
lightly. The General did not appear to 
think it strange — he was not a man to 
whom gossip about himself would be often 
repeated — for he went on : 

“ She was a most uncommon woman 
and she had a most unhappy life. I had 
the deepest respect and admiration for her, 
and I have always taken an interest in 
Your Highness for her name's sake.” 

“ I do not remember her at all,” Lenore 
replied gently, wishing that she could 
read the thoughts of the brave soldier 
before her, and know the true inwardness 
of the stories that had always interested 
her so greatly in spite of the fact that she 
did not know either of the persons con- 
cerned. The name of her godmother, 
Queen Lenore, had always had a strange 
fascination for her, and she had treasured 
up any little bits of information about her 
that came in her way. 

“ No, I suppose not. Your Highness 
was too young when she died.” 


34 


The Broken Ring. 


Then there was silence between them 
for some minutes which the Princess hesi- 
tated to break. Finally the General 
spoke : 

“ I suppose Your Highness would like 
some particulars about what is to become 
of you, but I suppose it would be too 
utterly unorthodox to give them to you. 
I am going to put Captain Delorme in 
charge of you.” The Princess raised her 
eyebrows slightly, but did not speak. 

“ Does n’t Your Highness approve of 
my choice ? ” he asked. 

“ It is not a matter of the slightest im- 
portance,” she replied indifferently. 

“ There is no man in the army in whom 
I have more confidence, and I have known 
him all my life,” he continued. “ I am 
sure he would never intentionally do any- 
thing to annoy Your Highness.” 

“ It was nothing — only ” Here she 

paused. 

“ Only what, Princess ? he demanded. 
She hesitated, looked a trifle confused, 
but finished her sentence : 

“ He is not very — deferential.” The 


And Suffers the Consequences. 35 

General looked as if he would have given 
a great deal to laugh, but he restrained 
himself and replied : 

*“ I will speak to him. I am sure it 
must have been unintentional. ,, The 
Princess colored. 

“ I beg you will not,” she remonstrated 
warmly. “ You would make me ridicu- 
lous. Deference is something that must 
be spontaneous.” 

“ I think you may trust me with your 
dignity, Princess,” he replied. “ My 
caution shall be of a general character. 
Delorme is a fine fellow, all the same, 
and I am sure Your Highness will recog- 
nize it when you have seen a little more 
of him, even if he is a trifle unconventional 
at times. He has two failings how- 
ever ” Here he stopped abruptly. 

The Princess restrained her impulse to ask 
what these were for fully a minute ; then 
her curiosity got the better of her dignity. 

“Are n’t you going to finish your sen- 
tence, General Malakoff?” she demanded. 

“ I thought Your Highness did not 
appear interested,” he answered. 


3 ^ 


The Broken Ring. 


Lenore looked up at him quickly, won- 
dering if he were actually teasing her, but 
nothing could have been more innocent 
than his face. 

“ On the contrary, I am most intensely 
absorbed. It is very thrilling. My future 
jailer, Captain Delorme of the Konigreich 
army and General Malakoff’s staff, has 
two faults. I must certainly know what 
they are. The knowledge may be useful 
to me.” The General smiled and a gleam 
of appreciation came into his eyes. He 
also found the conversation intensely 
absorbing. 

“Is Your Highness thinking of trying 
to escape?” he demanded. 

“ Do you actually expect me to tell you 
if I am ? ” she asked in her turn. 

“At all events, Delorme’s faults are 
such that a knowledge of them won’t be 
of any service in that direction,” he an- 
swered. “ He has no love of gold and is 
not susceptible to attentions from those of 
high estate, unless they spring from a real 
liking for himself. H is two faults are, first, 
pride, and second, a very quick temper.” 


And Suffers the Consequences. 


37 


“ Is that all ? ” she exclaimed in a dis- 
appointed tone. “ Those are not interest- 
ing at all. I have them both myself and 
a dozen or two others besides. I am 
afraid I cannot take an interest in your 
protege , General Malakoff, even if he is to 
be my jailer. Let us talk of something 
else. May I ask when I am to leave, or 
is that also forbidden ? ” 

“ And have Your Highness planning a 
rescue ? ” asked the General, laughing. 
“ Never, Princess. You will be told in 
plenty of time for your maid to get your 
things together.’” 

“That won’t take long. I had very 
little luggage with me. Well, I don’t sup- 
pose I shall need elaborate toilets where 
I am going ? ” 

“ I am not giving any information 
whatever,” replied the General as he rose 
to go. After he had taken leave of her 
and had reached the door, he turned back 
and said in an off-hand manner : 

“Nevertheless, Princess, Delorme is 
usually considered very good-looking and 
singularly attractive in manner. Not a 


33 


The Broken Ring . 


few great ladies have been pleased to be 
kind to him.” 

“ I have not noticed,” replied the Prin- 
cess, untruthfully. 

After he was gone, she fell to wonder- 
ing why the General seemed to attach so 
much consequence to her opinion of such 
an unimportant individual as his aide-de? 
camp, and why he himself seemed to think 
of him in such a special way. In her ex- 
perience, generals were not in the habit 
of bestowing much notice or consideration 
on officers of inferior rank. Was it simply 
the force of the young mans individuality, 
or was there some hidden reason in the 
background ? Who was this Captain 
Delorme anyway? Could there be some 
unacknowledged tie between him and his 
Commander-in-chief ? 

In the meanwhile, General Malakoff 
had gone to the parlor by way of the 
passage, instructing the soldier on duty 
to send Captain Delorme to him. When 
the latter appeared, he lowered his voice 
for fear of any syllable of what he said 
penetrating the thin partition into the 
room beyond. 


And Suffers the Consequences. 39 

“ Well, Raoul,” he said, “she suits me 
too. I will do anything in the power of 
a mortal, even to getting myself into dis- 
grace with His Majesty.” 

“ I knew you would,” the young man 
replied warmly. 

And then they both let the subject drop 
and passed on to other matters. 


CHAPTER III. 


ON THE WING. 

T HE next day was warm and decid- 
edly monotonous to the Princess. 
General Malakoff had offered her 
all the books he had with him, but as his 
collection was limited to some works on 
military tactics and a book or two on the 
higher mathematics, it was not of much 
use to her. The evening was relieved by 
another long visit from their owner, which 
left them better pleased with each other 
than ever. 

That night it was so warm- that she was 
a long time getting to sleep, and it seemed 
to her that she had been asleep only a 
few minutes when she was awakened with 
a start by some one entering her room 
with a lighted candle. 

“ What is it ? ” she exclaimed in a fright- 


40 


On ihe Wing. 41 

ened tone, and then she saw that the 
intruder was Louison. 

“We are to leave here within an hour, 
Your Highness,” she explained, and went 
immediately to work in the most com- 
posed and business-like fashion to get 
her mistress’s things together ready for 
packing. 

“ Who says so ?” demanded the Princess. 

“ The Captain said it was by General 
Malakoff’s orders, Your Highness, and he 
told me to say that we are to go on horse- 
back and to pack Your Highness’s things 
immediately. They will be taken on a 
mule.” 

“ But I have n’t any habit or anything,” 
remonstrated the Princess, as she pro- 
ceeded to get into her clothes as rapidly 
as possible. Louison was equally expe- 
ditious, so after they were ready, they 
had a long time to sit and wait before a 
knock came at the door, and General 
Malakoff came in. 

“ The hour is come, Princess. In about 
ten minutes it will be time for you to set 
out,” he said, with a smile. 


42 The Broken Ring. 

“ I wish you were going with me,” she 
replied. 

‘•If I were twenty years younger, it 
would be hard to prevent me,” he said. 

“If you were twenty years younger I 
should not want you,” she returned. 

“ Does Your Highness object to young 
men then ?” 

“Object? No. But I have noplace 
for them in my life. I can never meet 
them on the only terms that make inter- 
course with one’s fellow creatures worth 
having.” 

“Your Highness means?” 

“ On the terms of social equality and 
mutual freedom.” 

“ Is the etiquette of your court so 
strict ? ” 

“ I fear it is not only the etiquette ; it 
is partly myself. I am afraid, General 
MaJakoff, that I have an inordinate amount 
of one of the things you objected to in 
your young friend. I talk against social 
distinctions and rail against pedestals, but, 
all the same, I do not notice any inclina- 
tion on my part to abdicate mine when 


On the Wing . 


43 


occasion offers. I adore equality, but it 
offends me to have people forget my rank 
or not to realize it fully.” 

“It is very natural ; but we have not 
usually the grace to be so frank about 
our inconsistencies, Princess.” 

“ I find it very easy to talk to you,” she 
answered simply. 

The General smiled with pleasure, but, 
to her delight, did not make her any 
return compliment. He certainly had all 
the tact with which the world credited 
him. 

“ I am afraid it is time for Your High- 
ness to go,” he said instead, and conducted 
her and Louison to the front of the house, 
where a soldier was holding two horses 
with side-saddles on them. Another sol- 
dier was seeing to their girths and De- 
lorme was superintending the operation. 

“Are you all ready, Delorme ?” asked 
the General. 

“Yes, General,” replied the young 
man. 

“ Then come here,” the General con- 
tinued, leading him aside. 


44 


The Broken Ring . 


It was dark outside except for the 
starlight, but the light from the parlor 
window fell on Delorme, and the Princess 
saw that General Malakoff had laid his 
hand on his arm and appeared to be 
giving him directions of some kind in a 
low tone of voice, more the voice of a 
friend or a relative than that of a com- 
manding officer. And yet she knew his 
voice could act the character perfectly 
from the tones that had reached her the 
last two days through the open windows. 
She knew, too, that General Malakoff was 
as much feared as loved by the soldiers 
who served under him. The two men 
returned. 

“ Princess,” began the General, for- 
mally, “ I give you into Captain De- 
lorme’s care, and he will be personally 
responsible to me for everything concern- 
ing Your Highness. I have known him 
all his life, and I assure Your Highness 
that you can trust him as implicitly as the 
person you trust most on earth. Now to 
horse.” He himself assisted the Princess 
to her saddle. When she was seated, she 


On the Wing . 


45 


noticed that a strap was attached to her 
horse’s bridle, and that Captain Delorme 
held the other end. 

“ Is that necessary?” she demanded of 
the General, taking no notice of the 
young man. 

“It seems best,” he replied. “You 
see, the way lies over rough mountain 
roads, to which Your Highness is unac- 
customed, and there is very little light.” 
The Princess bowed and held out her 
hand to the General. 

“ I shall remember your visit to me 
with more pleasure than Your Highness 
will,” he said, as he kissed it. 

“There have been alleviating cir- 
cumstances,” returned the Princess, gra- 
ciously. 

Delorme now gave the word of com- 
mand and the little party rode off into 
the darkness. There were about a dozen 
soldiers in all, although the Princess could 
not see to count them at the time, and 
a couple of mules laden with luggage. 
Louison’s horse was also attached by 
his bridle to one of the other horses. It 


46 


The Broken Ring. 


seemed very dark at first, but as her eyes 
got used to the dim light, she began to 
distinguish trees and fences. It was a 
lovely night, too warm for comfortable 
sleep, but perfect for travelling, fragrant 
with the odors of the forest, into which 
they diverged almost immediately after 
leaving the farm-house. Frogs were 
croaking in marshy spots, and all the 
noises of a spring night were to be heard, 
for the horses’ hoofs made little noise on 
the springy needle-sown road, and there 
was no sound of human voices. They 
rode in absolute silence, Delorme leading 
the way with the Princess beside him. 
He seemed to be very familiar with the 
country, for he paid little attention to 
where they were going, and when two or 
more roads met, made a choice with no 
perceptible hesitation. At length they 
emerged from the forest upon a high- 
road again, one with which the Princess 
was perfectly unfamiliar, and here, as she 
could see with her eyes now accustomed 
to the faint light, the Captain’s demeanor 
changed. H is manner became prompt and 


47 


On the Wing. 

alert. He placed four soldiers in front 
of them and ordered the man who had 
Louison in charge to ride up directly 
behind him. 

At length they came to a toll-gate, and 
here he held a whispered conversation 
with the sleepy individual whom he 
aroused to open it for him. Then he 
exchanged a few words with the soldiers 
in the lead, and then came back to the 
Princess and took up her leading rein 
again. As they rode on, she noticed that 
he appeared more and more uneasy, turn- 
ing continually in his saddle and straining 
his eyes into the darkness ahead of them, 
Lenore found herself growing very ner- 
vous, too, although she reasoned with 
herself that she did not need to dread 
what Delorme was evidently afraid of, the 
appearance of a party of raiders from her 
own* country. Nevertheless, when the 
hoof of the horse in front of her struck 
something that resounded with a clang, 
she almost shrieked. 

“Halt!” shouted the Captain. “See 
what that is.” The man dismounted and 


48 


The Broken Ring . 


by the aid of a match picked up some- 
thing from the ground. 

“ It is a canteen, Captain,” he said, 
and not one of our kind. We have noth- 
ing so old-fashioned in the whole army.” 

“ I thought so,” returned the Captain. 
The Kttle troop stood motionless while 
their leader made up his mind what to do. 
Lenore found herself holding her breath, 
for fear it should make too much noise. 
Presently he rode to the head of his party, 
taking the Princess with him. Then he 
gave his commands : 

“ Follow me as quietly as you can. I 
am going to strike straight into the forest, 
and I feel confident that I can cut across 
to the road we were to take farther on 
and save the next two miles of the high- 
way. It will be hard riding for you, Prin- 
cess,” he added, addressing his companion 
for the first time as he turned his # horse 
straight into the pathless forest. 

“ I don’t mind the riding,” she said, 
with a slight emphasis on the last word. 

In a few minutes Delorme stopped, lit 
a match, and consulted the little compass 


On the Wing. 


49 


that hung on his watch chain, then he 
turned his horse’s head a little more to 
the east. It was dark, so dark that only 
good eyes and eyes that had been out in 
the night for some time could have seen 
two feet before them. The riding was 
hard, as the Captain had said it would be, 
but the horses were used to rough ground 
and found a way for themselves, for they 
had to be left to their own devices, except 
in regard to the general direction. Their 
progress was necessarily very slow. They 
had been in the forest about a quarter 
of an hour when Delorme ordered a 
halt, stood motionless, and appeared to 
listen. 

“ Ah !” he exclaimed, as what was first 
only an indistinguishable sound defined 
itself into the beating of hoofs on the 
highway they had so recently left. It 
continued for some minutes and then 
died away in the distance. 

“ Your Highness nearly had a rescue,” 
Delorme said to the Princess, with the 
first trace of excitement she had noticed 
in his manner. 

4 


50 


The Broken Ring . 


“ You would not have fought for me 
then ? ” she demanded. 

“ Most certainly ; but the difficulty 
would have been to detain Your High- 
ness and to do good work at the same 
time. Besides, even if we had got the 
better of it, unless we killed every man 
of them, Your Highness’s whereabouts 
would not long remain a secret.” He 
was certainly excited and a little jubilant. 
Probably if at all encouraged, he would 
become talkative ; accordingly she did not 
answer this speech. 

They rode along in silence for what 
seemed to her an interminable time, the 
Captain occasionally lighting a match and 
taking a look at his compass. Although 
he did not address her again, the Princess 
noticed that he took the most watchful 
care of her, seeing that her horse kept 
clear of bushes and did not go too near 
trees. Sometimes he had to throw the 
leading rein over her horse’s neck, but he 
always picked it up again when the ground 
became more open. At length they came 
into what was apparently a road, crossing 


On the Wing. 5 1 

the forest at right angles to the way they 
were going. 

“ Here we are/’ he exclaimed with a 
sigh of satisfaction. “We will let our 
horses rest a little. Now, Princess.” But 
before he could help her, she had slipped 
to the ground .unassisted. She stumbled 
as she did so, and would have fallen if he 
had not caught her by the arm. 

“ It would have been better if Your 
Highness had let me help you,” he re- 
marked quietly. Lenore swallowed the 
hasty answer that rose to her lips, and 
going over to a little mound of earth a 
few steps away, she seated herself upon it 
to get rid of her annoyance the best she 
could. Louison came up and offered her 
services, but finding that they were not 
wanted, she retired a little way off to say 
her prayers. The soldiers took off their 
horses to water at a stream near by, 
whose murmur the Princess could hear 
through the trees ; Delorme had disap- 
peared, too, so she was practically all alone 
in the darkness of night in the forest. 

“ I should not wonder if it were begin- 


52 


The Broken Ring . 


ning to get light out from under the 
trees,” she thought to herself. At first, 
she rather enjoyed the sensation, but pres- 
ently she began to get a little nervous. 
She had never been so entirely alone in 
all her life. An owl in a bush near by 
gave out a melancholy gurgle of sound 
and she started to her feet with a little in- 
voluntary cry. 

“It is only an owl, Princess,” Captain 
Delorme’s voice said reassuringly from 
out the darkness. She had not been as 
unguarded as she had thought herself. 

“ I knew that, only it startled me, it 
was so sudden,” replied the Princess, 
wishing it were not against her dignity to 
enter into conversation with her jailer, if 
only as a preventative against the perils 
and dangers of the night. She could see 
him now, leaning against a tree a little to 
the left of her, and she wondered whether 
he stood out of respect for her presence 
or because he preferred it. Presently she 
heard the soldiers bringing the horses 
back. One came up to the Captain, gave 
him something, and then retired to a 


53 


On the Wing. 

little distance, whence the sound of low- 
ered voices and the neighing of horses 
could be heard. 

Captain Delorme moved over towards 
her. As he came nearer, the Princess 
noticed that he had a paper package in 
one hand and a bottle in the other. 

“Will Your Highness have a sand- 
wich ? ” he asked, presenting the contents 
of the package. Then he took a little 
silver drinking cup out of his pocket, 
screwed it together, and pouring some wine 
out of the bottle into it, offered it to her. 
The Princess was only too glad to eat and 
drink. She thought that she had never 
tasted anything so good in her life. Her 
satisfaction made her gracious. 

“ Are you not going to have something, 
Captain Delorme ? ” she asked almost 
pleasantly. 

u Presently, Your Highness,” he an- 
swered, and she could not bring herself to 
give him any more definite invitation to 
share her meal. However, when she had 
finished, she condescended to remark 
politely : 


54 


The Broken Ring . 


“ I was very hungry.” Captain Delorme 
bowed without a word and retired out of 
sight. 

After a little they set forth on their 
journey again. It was easier now, for al- 
though the road they were on was narrow 
and rough, it was a great improvement 
on the trackless forest. In spite of the 
tall trees which did their best to keep it 
out, a faint glimmer of light now began 
to be noticeable. The dark objects around 
took the definite shapes of men and horses 
and trees and rocks. It was a glorious 
morning, and as they wound their way 
upward, the air grew fresher and more 
fragrant, and the Princess forgot the 
hardships she had undergone and those 
still before her in her delight in the sen- 
sation of being alive. She glanced once 
or twice at her companion, but he seemed 
thoroughly absorbed in the scene around 
them. For some time she had been 
hearing a noise in the far distance, at first 
indistinguishable, but which presently re- 
solved itself into the roaring of water. At 
length her curiosity got the better of her, 


On the Wing. 


55 


and seizing an opportunity when Captain 
Delorme happened to be looking over 
towards her side of the road, she asked 
him : 

“ Is there a waterfall near by ?” 

“What Your Highness hears is the 
water flowing over the mill-dam.’' 

“ The mill-dam ? ” 

“Then General Malakoff did not tell 
Your Highness where we are going ? ” 

“ He did not tell me anything,” she 
answered. 

“We are going to a deserted saw-mill 
in these mountains, and are nearly there. 
It is built of stone and is very strong, and 
we have done our best in the short time 
we have had to make it habitable for 
Your Highness.” 

“ I don’t see why you did n’t send me 
to the Capital if you intended to keep me 
prisoner,” the Princess exclaimed a trifle 
petulantly. 

“This was General Malakoff’s decision, 
and it was no doubt influenced by reasons 
of state,” the young man replied gravely, 
without the slightest change of counte- 


56 


The Broken Ring . 


nance. “ I hope, Princess, that you are 
not afraid of a deep ford,” he added a 
second later. 

“ How deep ?” inquired the Princess. 

'‘Your Highness will have to take your 
foot out of the stirrup. There was once 
a bridge here, but it was washed away 
long ago, and there has been no occasion 
to build it again.” 

“ And my horse ?” she asked. 

“ The horses in this part of the country 
are all used to fording streams, and this 
horse is especially good at it. I tried him 
myself in some water yesterday.” 

The noise of the water became louder 
and louder, and at length they came to 
the banks of a glorious mountain river, 
which at the place the road crossed it was 
flowing in a sluggish-looking stream. The 
water seemed deep, and the Princess did 
not like the idea of riding into it very 
well, but she kept her fears to herself. 
Captain Delorme ordered two of his 
troopers to ride through first, so that he 
could judge of the depth, and then he 
started with the Princess, who had tucked 


57 


On the Wing. 

her feet up under her the best way she 
could. The water rose higher and higher. 

“ I am afraid you will have to kneel on 
the seat, Princess, and put your hand on 
my shoulder to steady you,” Delorme re- 
marked as he rode up closer to her. He 
himself was letting his legs dangle in the 
water in the most unconcerned way. His 
tone was so perfectly matter-of-course that 
the Princess obeyed. 

At length they got into shallower 
water, and in a few minutes were on dry 
land again. The Princess looked around 
for Louison and found her kneeling up- 
right on her saddle in the most uncon- 
cerned way, as if fording a deep river was 
an every-day event. Her mistress sus- 
pected that she was taking advantage of 
her attitude to run off a few prayers. For 
some reason, this idea made her give a 
little involuntary laugh, and she turned 
to see Delorme watching her with some 
curiosity in his expression, which immedi- 
ately disappeared as his eyes met hers. 
Now, for the first time, she realized his 
dripping condition. 


58 


The Broken Ring . 


“ Why, you are soaking wet, Captain 
Delorme ! ” she exclaimed before she 
thought. 

“ I can’t hurt my clothes, Princess,” he 
answered, with what was almost a smile. 

“ But you will take cold,” she remon- 
strated, but without a particle of warmth 
in her tone. 

u Fortunately I don’t do that,” he re- 
plied, and the conversation dropped, for 
the mill now appeared in front of them. 
They had turned at the ford and ridden 
straight down the left bank of the river. 
The noise of the water was louder than 
ever. 

The mill was very picturesque, for the 
forest had crept in close around it and 
had covered up whatever might have 
been unsightly. The rough-hewn stones 
of which it was built were gray and green 
with lichens and moss. A flagged court- 
yard with grass growing in the chinks was 
in front of the building, and as they rode 
over this the door opened and Sergeant 
Kriegmann appeared on the threshold, 
accompanied by a huge hound, who 


On the Wing . 


59 


rushed eagerly at Captain Delorme and 
proceeded to show his joy at seeing him 
by nearly knocking him down. He de- 
fended himself, laughing, until the dog’s 
exuberance was quieted down a little and 
he had time to turn his attention to the 
Sergeant. 

“ Everything all right, Kriegmann ?” he 
asked. 

“Yes, Captain.” 

“ Well, you may show Her Highness 
to her rooms. I would get the floors 
wet,” he said, with a glance at his drip- 
ping trousers ; then added, turning to the 
Princess : “ I think I can assist Your 
Highness, however.” 

The Princess had had one lesson, so 
she let him help her off her horse. The 
Sergeant then led the way up a narrow 
creaking stairway that went straight up 
from the door of the mill into a little 
passage, out of which opened two doors. 
He opened the left-hand one and let the 
Princess precede him into a big apartment 
with a raftered ceiling and three great 
windows overlooking the mill-dam and 


6o 


The Broken Ring \ 

the torrent of water flowing over it. 
There was a small bed in one corner, an 
improvised washstand with a cracked 
mirror over it, and two rickety chairs. 
That was all the furniture, but everything 
was as clean as soap and water could 
make it. The floor was bare, but there 
was a strip of clean sacking in front of 
the bed. The Sergeant was very apolo- 
getic, but the Princess cut him short and 
dismissed him. She ordered Louison to 
close the rough wooden shutters, and, un- 
dressing as quickly as possible, she tum- 
bled into bed and fell into a dreamless 
sleep, from which she did not awaken 
until afternoon ; for there were no sounds 
on this side of the mill except the rushing 
of the water, which drowned all that might 
have penetrated from the other side. 

Thus began the first day of the Princess 
Lenore’s captivity in the mill. Of the fact 
that so many more were to follow it, she 
had not the slightest idea. It is hard to 
tell what her thoughts would have been if 
she had suspected this, and also the fact 
that she owed her confinement in this 


On the Wing. 


61 


lonely spot to the admiration of the in- 
different-seeming young man below stairs. 
Fortunately, that guilty person was spared 
such a calamity, and had only to suffer 
from her scorn of his lowly estate and her 
fearfulness of his possible presumption. 


CHAPTER IV. 


ROMANCE VERSUS REALITY. 

T HE Princess Lenore was romantic 
when she was at home in the midst 
of the royal inertness and aristo- 
cratic stupidity of her fathers palace, and 
often wished that some event would take 
place that would vary the monotony and 
arouse a thrill of interest ; but now that 
something really exciting had happened, 
she did n’t even recognize the romance of 
it and wished heartily that she was still 
in possession of her own bed in which to 
lie awake and dream, and her own luxuri- 
ous apartments in which to be comfort- 
ably bored. Yet what a delicious dream 
her present circumstances would have 
made. She, the Princess and heroine, 
taken a prisoner of war and confined with 
one attendant in the upper story of a 
62 


Romance versus Reality . 


63 


dilapidated mill. Below in the courtyard 
a squad of soldiers, her guards, commanded 
by a good-looking young captain under 
orders to make her a visit of inspection 
every day. Even the view from the 
windows was romantic : masses upon 
masses of pine-covered mountains all 
around, and below the windows a foaming, 
rushing mountain stream, sweeping in a 
waterfall over what had once been a mill- 
dam. She could n’t help being impressed, 
in spite of herself, with the lavishness of 
beauty around her, but the other details 
of the stage setting were lost on her. 
What interested her most was that there 
were rats in the walls of the mill and she 
was afraid they might force their way in 
again, with an indignant protest against 
being turned out of their old haunts and 
a determination to know the reason why. 
Then, her bed, though clean, was anything 
but comfortable, with the strangest and 
most unaccountable lumps all over it ; and 
although this Princess did not mind peas, 
or even beans, she drew the line at pump- 
kins. The toilet arrangements were most 


64 The Broken Ring . 

inadequate, and the food only just swallow- 
able. She did not complain to Louison, 
her only companion. She was not the 
kind of a woman who complains ; she did 
not even make a detailed protest in her 
mind, but still she was acutely conscious, 
in a general way, of being very uncomfort- 
able, and the fact that the unaccustomed 
confinement and lack of exercise was 
making her feel ill did not lessen this 
consciousness. 

She was not especially alarmed about 
her personal safety. In these days they 
did n’t do anything very serious to you 
when they captured you ; but she was 
anxious to know what was going on in the 
world outside. Were the two countries 
settling their difficulties by arbitration, 
after the exchange of a shot or two and 
a few flourishes of trumpets, or even 
without them, or was a real war going on, 
and what was her country’s fortune? In 
this out-of the-way spot not a rumor, not 
a sound reached her except the rushing of 
the water underneath. It was very stupid 
of her and very careless to let herself fall 


Romance versus Reality . 65 

into the hands of the enemy so early in 
the game, thus complicating matters and 
increasing her fathers difficulties; but, 
someway, she had not found it possible 
to believe that people took other people 
prisoners nowadays, or that any one, even 
Konigreich soldiers, would interfere with 
the Princess Lenore’s liberty ; and the 
road through the mountains was so infi- 
nitely more attractive to her than the 
dusty detour through Neutralstadt that 
she had felt herself justified in disregard- 
ing her father’s directions as to her route. 

At this place, on the particular day of 
which we are writing, a few days after her 
arrival at the mill, the Princess’s thoughts 
were interrupted by the entrance of Lou- 
ison to announce the arrival of Captain 
Delorme, and to request that Her Highness 
do him the honor to receive him, a formula 
that was repeated every afternoon at about 
this hour. Lenore turned from the win- 
dow and told the maid to show him in, 
wondering for the twentieth time what he 
would do if she refused him admittance, 

and wishing it were not beneath her dig- 

5 


66 


The Broken Ring . 


nity to try and see. Instead, she drew 
herself up to her full height, looking the 
daughter of a hundred dukes in every one 
of her sixty-nine inches. 

“ Good afternoon, Captain Delorme. 
What can I do for you ? ” she asked a 
little haughtily, as the young man entered 
with the customary salutation. 

“ I wish to know if Your Highness is 
as comfortable as could be expected, and 
if there is any service within my power to 
perform,” he answered in the customary 
formula, of which the expression only had 
been varied. He was standing just within 
the worm-eaten door, the light from the 
window falling full on the clear-cut, clean- 
shaven face, which the Princess hardly 
took the trouble to look at. 

“ Nothing, thank you, Captain Delorme. 
Everything is perfection.” There was not 
a trace of sarcasm in her voice, whatever 
there might be in her words. 

“ It is feared at headquarters that Your 
Highness’s health will suffer with the con- 
finement,” he continued, “so permission 
has been given f<?r you to walk in the 


67 


Romance versus Reality . 

forest every day, under escort, provided 
you will give your promise not to at- 
tempt any communication with any one.” 
The Princess drew herself up and an- 
swered coldly : 

“ Thank you, Captain Delorme, but I 
do not want any favors. You need not 
trouble yourself to procure any conces- 
sions. I am perfectly contented and per- 
fectly well.” She made a gesture of 
dismissal and the Captain started to go, 
but stopped at the door and turned : 

“ Princess,” he said. 

"Captain Delorme,” she answered cere- 
moniously. 

“ I have always heard that Your High- 
ness was a just woman, but it seems that 
report lied. It certainly is not just to 
overwhelm a man with scorn for doing 
his duty. I am a soldier in the employ 
of the King and under the orders of 
General Malakofif. I am set to guard a 
royal captive and obey my orders. May 
I ask how Your Highness would act if 
you were I ? ” 

" I cafinot imagine anything so prepos- 


68 


The Broken Ring . 


terous,” the Princess answered promptly, 
and her tone was even more insulting 
than her words. The young man flushed, 
bowed again, and this time he left the 
room. 

Lenore’s conscience troubled her after 
this interview, and she could not help 
acknowledging to herself that she was un- 
just, which fact made her resolve to be 
more scornful than ever at their future 
interviews. Captain Delorme should be 
taught that it was not his place to lecture 
the Princess Lenore. Nevertheless, she 
wished she had not rejected the offer of a 
daily walk in the forest quite so decidedly, 
just as she had repented sending the Cap- 
tain’s books back unread a few days be- 
fore. She had been dull so often in the 
course of her royal life that she was some- 
what used to the sensation, but confine- 
ment in two rooms of a dilapidated mill, 
with absolutely nothing to do, was oppres- 
sive even for a princess. It was hot, too, 
and the forest looked so green and cool 
and inviting. It would be refreshing to 
stroll about ia it. An esgort would be a 


Romance versus Reality . 69 

drawback, but it would certainly be better 
than practising fancy knots in a piece of 
string, which was the only amusement her 
lodgings afforded her. A certain restless- 
ness and the unspeakable dreariness of it 
all grew upon her to such a degree that, 
when Captain Delorme renewed his pro- 
posal a day or two later, she accepted it 
with royal condescension, as of one con- 
ferring a favor on a slave. The Captain 
replied that he would be at her service at 
ten on the following morning. 

“Oh, do you go with me?” asked the 
Princess in an expressionless tone that 
made the young man flush slightly. 

“ Those are my orders,” he answered 
almost as haughtily as herself. “ I shall 
be, as always, at Your Highness’s service.” 

The next morning at ten, word was 
sent up that Captain Delorme was await- 
ing the Princess Lenore’s commands. She 
descended immediately, resisting an im- 
pulse to keep him waiting, as beneath her 
dignity. She had dreaded passing under 
the gaze of the soldiers, but Captain 
Delorme was the only person in sight. 


70 The Broken Ring . 

She tried not to be grateful for his con- 
sideration. He saluted as she stepped out 
into the sunlight. 

“ I shall have to ask for Your Highness’s 
parole,” he said deprecatingly. She gave 
it promptly, but, in spite of herself, both 
her looks and her tone betrayed the 
humiliation she was feeling. Captain 
Delorme seemed to understand this, for 
he looked, not at her, but at the grass 
growing in the chinks of the rough stones 
over her head. 

“Will Your Highness choose the direc- 
tion in which you wish to walk, or shall I 
be your guide ? ” he asked. 

“ I should like to cross the river and 
walk straight on through the forest,” re- 
plied the Princess. The Captain assented 
and led the way up the stream towards 
the rude foot-bridge that was built from 
boulder to boulder in the bed of the 
stream. As they started, four soldiers 
came from around the corner of the mill 
and fell into place about fifty feet behind 
them. Of these the Princess appeared to 
take no notice. 


7i 


Romance versus Reality . 

‘'Your Highness is not afraid to cross 
the bridge? It is very narrow and takes 
a strong head/’ the Captain said, as they 
approached. For answer she stepped 
upon the railless planks and walked across 
as calmly as if she were crossing the 
throne room of her father’s palace. 

They walked in silence for three quar- 
ters of an hour and then turned and 
walked back again, the four soldiers fol- 
lowing at the same distance, but never 
taking their eyes off her. Lenore tried 
not to be conscious of it, but, in spite of 
all the beauty through which they were 
walking, she could not forget those eight 
eyes fastened on her back. The studi- 
ously careful way in which her companion 
kept his eyes anywhere but on her was even 
more disconcerting, and she was annoyed 
at herself for finding the silence oppres- 
sive. Altogether, she was glad when the 
walk was over ; but, nevertheless, she 
could not make up her mind to decline the 
ordeal on the next day. The afternoon 
and evening had been so hopelessly long. 
She had slept herself out the first few 


72 


The Broken Ring . 


days, and now found it impossible to 
spend more than eight of the twenty-four 
hours in that delightful occupation. 

A day or two later the program was 
varied by a dispute between jailer and 
captive. Lenore was seldom self-con- 
scious, and this morning she forgot herself 
completely and uttered some exclamations 
at the beauty of the forest. Captain 
Delorme had conducted her to a spot in 
the heart of it, the source of one of the 
many streams in the neighborhood, and 
she had exclaimed “ How very romantic !” 
before she remembered to whom she was 
speaking. 

“ Indeed it is,” the Captain had replied 
calmly, indifferently, the Princess chose 
to think. Now that she had broken the 
silence involuntarily, she qould not help 
going on a little farther : 

“ Though, of course, men rarely care 
anything for natural beauty.” Her tone 
was several degrees cooler than necessary 
so as to make a low general average with 
her condescension in addressing him at all. 

“Your Highness is mistaken,” he as- 


Romance versus Reality . 73 

serted positively with as much haughti- 
ness as herself. It was provoking that all 
the usual methods for keeping people in 
their places failed with this unimportant 
young man. His manner was always 
courteous but never deferential ; or, at 
least, only with the deference that man 
pays to woman, or victor to vanquished. 
It was the deference of the superior posi- 
tion to the inferior, her rank apparently 
making no impression on him. If the 
Princess was rudely haughty, and her con- 
science told her she had been so more 
than once, the Captain was politely 
haughty, not weighed down with a con- 
sciousness of her disfavor, as he most 
certainly should have been. So now 
when he answered so calmly yet so de- 
cidedly : '‘Your Highness is mistaken,” 
she felt inclined to be very angry indeed, 
but combated it and replied almost as 
calmly as he had done : 

“ Men are less civilized than women, 
nearer the original savage, and an aesthetic 
appreciation of natural beauty is a culti- 
vated taste.” 


74 


The Broken Ring. 


“ Most artists and poets have been 
men,” he replied parenthetically ; then 
went on: “Your Highness thinks then 
that our remote ancestors had no appre- 
ciation of it ? The situation of historical 
remains would seem to contradict that.” 

“ When a beautiful site was chosen for 
a building, it was generally for some other 
reason than beauty, — because of shade or 
water or fertile soil.” The Princess had 
recognized immediately that her original 
proposition would not stand investigation, 
but she would not back down. She fully 
expected the Captain to try to prove to 
her that it was indefensible, but he left 
her the last word and made no answer to 
her speech, which was infinitely more an- 
noying. She made an inward vow that 
nothing should induce her to say another 
word to this insolent young man, but broke 
it a minute later, as they started on their 
homeward way, by remarking : 

“ You agree with me then?” 

“ No, Princess, I do not.” 

“ Why did n’t you say so then?” she 
broke out impatiently, for the long strain 


Romance versus Reality . 75 

she had undergone was beginning to tell 
on her nerves. 

“ Because I did not wish to prove Your 
Highness in the wrong, and because I saw 
that a difference of opinion would be an- 
noying,” he replied tranquilly. 

“ Are you usually so considerate in an 
argument ? ” she demanded scornfully, 
with difficulty restraining the impatience 
his words caused. 

“No, not always,” he replied signifi- 
cantly. The Princess was a little molli- 
fied. Here at last was a mark of respect 
for her superior position. 

“ And why did you do it now ? ” she 
asked in a gentler tone, determined to 
force some acknowledgment of her rank 
out of him. 

“ Because, under the circumstances, I 
wish to spare Your Highness every an- 
noyance in my power. I am afraid there 
are far too many as it is.” The Princess 
frowned, and felt angrier than ever. She 
had entirely forgotten for a moment their 
relative positions. She wished that there 
had been something in his words to which 


76 The Broken Ring, 

she could reasonably, or unreasonably, 
take offence ; but there was not, so she 
attacked the subject at a new point. 

“ Then you think I am the kind of 
woman who takes a difference of opin- 
ion as a personal offence ?” 

“ I should n’t presume to have any 
opinion on the subject.” The Princess 
flushed. His words reminded her uncom- 
fortably of hers to him on the day when he 
had first conveyed to her permission for 
these daily rambles. His tone was more 
polite than hers had been, but something 
in it told her that her answer was in his 
mind as well as in hers. He showed 
plainly, too, that he did consider her that 
objectionable kind of a woman, and she 
felt aggrieved, at the same time that she 
could not help acknowledging to herself 
that her behavior to him gave ample evi- 
dence for his belief. They walked in 
silence for a few minutes until her anger 
cooled. It never, under any circumstances, 
took more than a few minutes with her. 
Then, in spite of herself, she could not 
help beginning the subject again. It was 


Romance versus Reality . 77 

so long since she had exchanged a word 
with any one but Louison, and she was 
not a silent woman. 

“ When I said that men were less civil- 
ized than women,” she began, “ I was 
thinking of their cruelty in particular. If 
women had the ruling of things, war, for 
instance, would have ceased with the bar- 
baric ages to which it properly belongs. 
All men are more or less cruel. Why, the 
day you brought me here, I saw the sol- 
diers actually urge on some terriers to 
kill a cat, a poor, forlorn, starved-looking 
creature, who was making a noble fight 
for life. You all of you have a great deal 
of the original savage in you. You all in- 
stinctively love bull-fights and dog-fights, 
and things of that sort. You would just 
as soon an animal got killed as not — a 
little sooner ! ” 

“ I think you must acknowledge, Prin- 
cess, that there are some exceptions to that 
rule,” the young man returned indiffer- 
ently, though the fire in his eyes and a 
certain expression around his mouth con- 
tradicted his manner, Lenore was satis- 


78 


The Broken Rhig. 


fied ; she had made him as angry as she 
had been, and they had reached the mill 
before her repentance arrived. 

The great hound whom she had seen on 
the day of her arrival came rushing out 
to meet them, nearly knocking the Captain 
down with the warmth of his greeting. 

“ Down, Balder, down. Behave your- 
self,” said his master. The Princess’s eyes 
softened. She loved dogs. 

“ Why does n’t he go with us ? ” she de- 
manded. 

“ I was afraid he might annoy Your 
Highness.” Lenore was about to protest, 
when she was interrupted by the Sergeant, 
who came running up with a collar and a 
dog chain. He was about to take the dog 
away, but the Princess interfered. 

“ Let me see him a minute. I have a 
great many dogs of my own at home,” 
she said, her face saddening as she won- 
dered how long it would be before she 
saw them again. Sergeant Kriegmann 
evidently understood her feelings, for he 
tried to divert her. The Captain had 
turned away to give an order. 


Romance versus Reality . 79 

“ He ’s a fine dog, Your Highness, and 
devoted to the Captain. The Captain 
risked his life to save him from a pack of 
wolves. See, here are the marks of their 
fangs on his ears, and now Balder is miser- 
able out of his sight.” Captain Delorme 
came back in time to catch the drift of the 
Sergeant’s remarks, but not in time to 
stop him. His eyes met those of the 
Princess, and there was a stern look in 
them. He dismissed the man and the 
dog with a “ That will do, Sergeant,” and 
remarking coldly, “ Now, Princess, I am 
at your service,” conducted her across the 
court and up the stairs to the door of her 
apartment. When they reached the top, 
the Princess turned and said to her com- 
panion, who was a step behind her : 

“ I beg your pardon, Captain Delorme. 
It was not true what I said ; and I knew it 
when I said it,” and disappeared within the 
door which Louison had opened, leaving 
the young man on the stairs speechless 
with astonishment. There was quite a 
new expression on his face when he finally 
turned and went downstairs again. Their 


8o 


The Broken Ring . 


walks were a trifle more harmonious after 
this. They exchanged a few words oc- 
casionally about the scenery — the only 
topic that seemed free from danger. Bal- 
der went with them, and soon struck up 
an intimate friendship with Lenore. He 
took a day or two to make up his mind 
about her, but after that there was no re- 
serve. She was so much in the habit of 
talking to her dogs that she kept forget- 
ting and speaking to Balder, in spite of 
the fact that she did not care to reveal to 
the Captain any different self from the 
proud, unreasonable one which he had 
heretofore seen. 

One morning they walked farther than 
usual and came out of the forest on an 
old road which Lenore recognized as one 
that she had often passed over in her 
journeys to and from home. Since a new 
and better one had been built, it was 
seldom used, so seldom, indeed, that grass 
grew all over it. For the last ten minutes 
or so before they struck it Captain De- 
lorme had appeared uneasy. 

M Now I know where we are,” he ex- 


Romance versus Reality . 8 1 

claimed in a tone of relief as they climbed 
down the little embankment beside it. 
“ I really began to think I had lost my 
way.” 

“You seem to know this part of the 
country very well,” remarked the Prin- 
cess. 

“ I do. I was born not so very far from 
here,” and he made a gesture towards the 
west. 

“You are a native of Konigreich, 
then ? ” asked Lenore. She was inter- 
ested, for this was the first personal re- 
mark she had ever heard the Captain 
make. 

“Yes, Your Highness,” he answered 
simply, with no further explanation. She 
would have liked to ask him a few ques- 
tions about himself, but his uncommuni- 
cativeness stopped her. Besides, she did 
not wish to appear interested. 

They had walked along this road for 
about a mile, the four soldiers in the 
background as usual, when the sound of 
voices in the distance broke the stillness, 

mingled with the noise of horses’ hoofs 
6 


82 


The Brokeh Ring . 


and the clank of weapons. Captain De- 
lorme signalled to the soldiers, who came 
up on a run. 

“ Behind those rocks up there !” he 
ordered. Then to Lenore : “ Princess, I 
shall have to trouble you to come with 
me.” He unceremoniously took her by 
the arm, and in a second she found her- 
self seated behind a mass of tall gray 
rocks a little above the road. 

The sounds became louder. In another 
minute the riders, whoever they were, 
would be in sight around the bend of the 
road. Delorme and the Princess were a 
little apart from the others, behind a big 
rock with a crevice in it through which 
they could see a small section of the road. 

“ I have your parole, Princess,” said the 
Captain in a low voice. The Princess did 
not answer, for at that moment she re- 
membered that Captain Delorme had that 
morning, for the first and only time, for- 
gotten to exact it of her. Balder had 
come up with his foot torn and bleeding 
just as she stepped into the courtyard, 
and had distracted his master’s attention. 


Romance versus Reality. 


83 


She did not look at her companion for 
fear of bringing the same recollection into 
his mind, but leaned eagerly forward to 
look out through the crack and see who 
the men might be. In another second 
she felt something placed over her mouth 
before she could utter a sound, her hands, 
which she raised instinctively to pull it 
away, were grasped in one strong one, 
and she herself was held as firmly as if it 
were a vice and not arms that were bind- 
ing her. She felt immediately that to 
struggle was hopeless. 

“ I can’t help it. If I let you escape, 
it will be my ruin. I have been careless 
and I have gone beyond orders in taking 
you so far from the mill,” Captain De- 
lorme’s voice whispered in her ear in tones 
absolutely unlike his usual ceremonious 
ones. And then, helpless as she was, she 
saw a troop of her father’s soldiers file by, 
with an officer at their head whom she 
had often met at the court of Herzog- 
thum. They were so near that she could 
catch snatches of their conversation. It 
took several minutes for them to pass 


8 4 


The Broken Ring . 


and, all the time, she felt the restraining 
clasp of the Captain’s strong arms, his 
warm breath on her neck, and the quick 
beating of his heart. She had never been 
so close to a man before, and though the 
offender was a humble subaltern in her 
enemy’s army, she did not feel so out- 
raged as she would have expected to feel. 

When the sounds had died away in the 
distance, Delorme released her and she 
turned to find him looking at her with a 
look on his face that she had never seen 
before. He gave a start of surprise as he 
saw that his handkerchief had slipped 
down on her chin. 

“ You could have called,” he exclaimed. 

“Yes, I could have,” she answered 
defiantly. 

“ Why did n’t you ? ” he asked boldly. 

“ And let my father’s soldiers find me, 
their Princess, in your arms?” she de- 
manded with scathing contempt in her 
tones. Delorme’s eyes blazed, but he 
only said calmly : 

“It was a heavy price to pay. Your 
Highness need not even have explained 


Romance versus Reality . 


85 


that you did not stay there because you 
liked it. My handkerchief would have 
told the story.” It was now the Princess’s 
turn to be angry, as the Captain had evi- 
dently intended she should be, and she 
was not slow to avail herself of it. She 
flashed on him one look calculated to re- 
duce an ordinary man to ashes, and then 
started to climb back into the road again, 
Delorme and the four soldiers following 
her. When they reached the road, they 
fell into their usual order, Delorme at her 
side, the soldiers a little behind. Neither 
spoke a word or exchanged a look until 
they came to a place where the road 
forded a stream, and the only way for 
foot-passengers to cross was by means of 
stepping-stones, very far apart. Never- 
theless, the Princess started resolutely 
towards them. Delorme placed himself 
in front of her. 

“I beg your pardon, Princess. You 
will have to accept my assistance.” 

“ I know it would be easy for you to 
force me to,” she answered icily. The 
Captain stepped aside and let her pass 


86 


The Broken Ring . 


without another word. She began to 
cross with reckless speed, so reckless that 
she presently found herself standing up to 
her knees in water, while still several feet 
from the bank. She took no notice of 
her mishap, but walked calmly on through 
the water for the rest of the way, as if she 
had intended to do this very thing, her 
companion, in the meanwhile, looking on 
from a stone in the middle of the stream 
without a remark or even an exclamation. 
When he joined her again, he did not ap- 
pear to notice her soaked condition and 
the way her skirts clung to her, trying to 
trip her up at every step. At last they 
did reach the mill. Delorme accompanied 
her to her door as usual. As they climbed 
the rickety stairs, the Princess turned and 
asked him in the most frigid of tones : 

“Were you afraid I would break my 
parole, or did you happen to remember 
that you had forgotten to ask me for it ?” 

“I remembered. I never doubted Your 
Highness’s honor” he answered just as 
coldly as he saluted and left her standing 
at the top of the stairs. 


CHAPTER V. 


GENERAL MALAKOFF MAKES A COMMUNI- 
CATION. 

T HE next morning the Princess re- 
ceived word through Louison that 
there were to be no more walks ; 
and after that there was nothing to break 
the monotony except Captain Delorme’s 
daily visit of inspection, now conducted 
more formally, if possible, than ever. She 
got into the habit of looking forward to it 
as the one event of the day, and dated 
everything from that hour. Louison, who 
had been a perfect attendant in a palace, 
was not the most satisfactory companion 
for a prisoner. Lenore had chosen her 
as the successor to a lively French maid 
who had married, simply because she was 
so silent and stolid, for she was heartily 
tired of Therese’s volubility. Louison 
87 


88 


The Broken Ring . 


was very religious and spent most. of her 
time telling^her beads. She had hopes 
of entering a convent some day, and her 
thoughts were so intent on the world to 
come that she hardly concerned herself 
with the present one. She took all events, 
no matter how unusual, in a matter-of- 
course way that was irritating. 

On the twenty-eighth day Captain De- 
lorme’s place was taken by his Sergeant. 
The Princess had not listened to Louison 
when she announced him, supposing it to 
be the usual formula, and was conse- 
quently much surprised when she ushered 
in the weather-beaten face and stumpy 
figure of Sergeant Kriegmann instead 
of Captain Delorme’s more harmonious 
features. 

“ Why, where is Captain Delorme ? ” 
she demanded involuntarily before the 
Sergeant could speak. 

“ The Captain, Your Highness, has 
been sent for by General Malakoff,” an- 
swered the Sergeant, and then went on 
to perform his duty by making the neces- 
sary inquiries. The Princess detained 


Malakoff Makes a Communication. 89 

him in conversation for a little while, but 
she did not ask any more questions about 
Delorme, feeling that she had showed too 
much interest as it was. She liked Ser- 
geant Kriegmann, and had pursued her 
acquaintance with him on several occa- 
sions since'the day Balder began it. Ask- 
ing questions would not have been neces- 
sary in any case, however, for the Sergeant 
had apparently only one subject of con- 
versation, and that was “ the Captain.” 
He sang his praises constantly, — what a 
fine young man he was, and what a splen- 
did soldier, and how much General Mala- 
koff thought of him, and a dozen variations 
on the same theme. Still he did not give 
the piece of information of all others that 
the Princess wanted — when the Captain 
would return. 

In the meanwhile, Delorme was riding 
through the forest a number of miles away. 
It was dark, dark and unusually chilly for 
the season of the year, when he pulled up 
in front of the farm-house in which Gen- 
eral Malakoff was established. He dis- 
mounted and gave his horse into the 


90 


The Broken Ring. 


charge of the orderly who attended him. 
An officer, who was standing in the door- 
way, came forward and greeted him cor- 
dially, and took him to his room to get 
ready for supper, which was just about to 
be served. When, a little later, he entered 
the room which had once been the best 
parlor of the house, he found General 
Malakoff standing in front of the fire, 
talking earnestly with two elderly men 
whose uniform showed them to be of 
high rank. He received Delorme with 
great friendliness and then went on with 
his conversation. Half a dozen other 
officers, with whom the room was filled, 
crowded around Delorme, welcoming him 
cordially, although they kept their voices 
subdued as if awed by the group in front 
of the fire. No one, looking at the Cap- 
tain’s animated face and hearing his 
hearty laughter as he answered or evaded 
his companions’ questions, would have 
dreamed he was the same young man 
who had accompanied the Princess Lenore 
in her walks, looking as if jokes and 
laughter were utterly unknown to him. 


Malakoff Makes a Communication. 9 1 

After supper was over, a very simple 
meal, General Malakoff withdrew into the 
adjoining room, motioning to Delorme to 
follow him. As soon as the door was 
shut, his whole manner changed. 

“Well, Raoul, my dear boy,” he said 
affectionately, laying his hand on the 
young man’s shoulder, “ how goes it ? ” 

“ Fairly well, thank you, General,” said 
Delorme, returning his glance with one 
of equal affection. The General sat down 
in a chair in front of a table littered with 
papers, and Delorme seated himself oppo- 
site him. 

“ Tell me all about it,” he began after 
a few questions about the condition of the 
part of the country around the old mill. 
“ Is the fair Princess still cruel ? ” The 
Captain laughed as he answered : 

“ I don’t wonder I feel cold to-night. 
I have been frozen for days until I wonder 
I have a spark of warmth left in my 
body.” 

“ Are you cold ? Then we ’ll have 
something to warm you up.” He touched 
a bell on the table and when a soldier en- 


92 


The Broken Ring . 


tered, ordered him to fill a small kettle 
that stood on the hearth beside the fire. 
While this was being done, he talked with 
Delorme on military matters with all the 
condescension and reserve proper between 
Commander-in-chief and Captain. Then 
he dismissed the man, telling him he 
should want nothing more that night and, 
getting up, started to open a small cup- 
board, but Delorme jumped up and antici- 
pated him, taking from it a big bottle, 
lemons, sugar, etc. 

“Just you sit there,” he said, motioning 
to an arm-chair in front of the fire, “ and 
let ’s see if my hand has lost its cunning.” 

“ It is like old times, but it is n’t appro- 
priate that you should wait on me. It 
won’t be very long, I fancy,” he said signifi- 
cantly. Then added hastily, as Delorme 
looked at him inquiringly : “ Well, we 
won’t discuss that to-night. It is only that 
the last debauches have been more violent 
than ever. Come, tell me about your 
Princess, Raoul.” 

“She’s not my Princess,” replied Raoul, 
who had taken off his coat, rolled up his 


Malakoff Makes a Communication. 93 

shirt sleeves, and was busy with the lemons 
and sugar, first taking the precaution of 
locking the door. “ I am the dirt under 
her feet, very pretty feet they are too, 
not too small, but just small enough.” 

“ She does n’t return your admiration, 
has n’t fallen in love with you yet ? ” 
asked the General. 

“ Fallen in love ! ” exclaimed Delorme. 
“ Why, she hardly knows I exist.” 

“ But you are rather a good-looking, 
attractive young fellow.” 

“ And so might her footman be. I 

wish I could tell you ” and here the 

young man began to chuckle. 

“ What ? ” asked the General, curi- 
ously. 

“ Oh, I don’t dare. You ’d have me 
broken if you knew.” 

“ You need n’t tell me in my official 
capacity,” said the General, laughing. 

“ Will you swear that my superior 
officer shall never know about it? I promise 
you there shall not be anything more of 
the kind, no matter how great an interest 
she takes in romantic scenery. I ’ll keep 


94 


The Broken Ring . 


solemnly to orders. I had too bad a 
fright. The cold chills that ran up and 
down my spine ! I thought I was done 
for, for the Commander-in-chief could not 
have overlooked the fact that I had been 
abominably careless and was where I had 
no business to be.” 

“ That sounds very interesting. I ’ll 
promise as solemnly as you like,” said the 
General. 

“ Well, then,” began Raoul, and 
plunged into an account of their adven- 
ture in the forest. “You are a man of 
some limited experience,” he finished, with 
a mischievous look at the General, when 
he had described the unconcerned way in 
which the Princess had walked back to 
the mill, with her wet skirts flopping 
around her and an expression that was 
entirely out of keeping with her desha- 
bille. The General had been very much 
amused. “ You are a man of some limited 
experience, what do you think was the 
reason she did n’t scream ? Do you really 
think she did n’t want her soldiers to find 
her in my arms ? It seems ridiculous.” 


Malakoff Makes a Communication, 95 

“ I ’ll be damned if it was,” exclaimed 
the General, forcibly. 

“How do you account for it then? I 
can’t think of any reason that will hold 
water.” 

“You said she remembered that she 
had n’t given her parole ? ” 

“Yes, perfectly.” 

“ Well, then, do you want to know what 
I think — as a man of some limited ex- 
perience ? ” 

“ That ’s just what I ’ve been asking 

yf 

you. 

“ I think she did n’t want a certain 
somebody who shall be nameless to be 
taken prisoner or to bring disgrace upon 
him.” 

“ Nonsense,” exclaimed Delorme. 
“ That is even less plausible than the 
other reason. But you would n’t think 
so, General, if you had seen her man- 
ner towards me lately. It is worse 
than ever. To prefer captivity to injur- 
ing me, how perfectly idiotic,” and the 
young man laughed in rather a mirthful 
fashion. 


96 The Broken Ring . 

“ How does she treat you?” asked the 
General. 

“ She is absolutely unjust and un- 
reasonable, although I suppose it is very 
natural under the circumstances. I ’d 
want to kill her every time I saw her if 
I did n’t want to subdue her more. The 
provoking part is that she is kind and 
gracious to the soldiers, and affectionate 
and altogether delightful to Balder.” 
Captain Delorme looked at the fire and 
General Malakoff at Captain Delorme. 

“ Do you want to know what I think 
about it all, Raoul ? ” he asked presently. 
The young man nodded. “ I think the 
Princess’s jailer has fallen very deeply in 
love with his captive.” Raoul sighed. 

'‘You are right,” he said, after a mo- 
ment’s pause. “ Of course it is perfectly 
senseless, but, do you know, I do believe 
it began that time in Paris. Still I don’t 
believe she would look at me even if I had 
a kingdom to offer her,” he added sadly. 

“Nonsense,” exclaimed the General, 
emphatically. “ I ’ll wager she is just as 
much in love with you as you are with 


Malakoff Makes a Communication . 97 

her, and this manner is just put on to 
hide it. Courage, Raoul. Who should 
hope if not you ?” 

“ But she will be married to some other 
fellow before I have the ghost of a show,” 
he complained. General Malakoff did not 
speak, then he said impressively : 

“Raoul!” 

“ Mon general^ 

“ I am going to tell you a state secret, 
to put a trump card in your hand, and 
then leave it to you to play it when you 
like. Are you sure the door is locked ? 
Then draw your chair a little nearer.” 
He leaned over and whispered something 
in his companion’s ear. The latter started, 
then exclaimed impetuously : 

“ I don’t believe it. It is perfectly pre- 
posterous.” The most overwhelming sur- 
prise was in his manner. 

“ Not so much as it seems on the 
surface,” the General replied calmly, and 
whispered several sentences more. Raoul’s 
eyes brightened as he listened. Finally 
he sprang to his feet and walked out of 
range of the fire-light. 


The Broken Ring . 


“ The story sounds plausible, but I find 
it hard to believe/’ he said at length. 
“ Perhaps because it does n’t seem quite 
in the usual course of events to get what 
you wished for most, all in a second.” 
Then he came back and asked several 
questions in rapid succession, all of which 
the General answered apparently to his 
satisfaction. 

“And you have known it all .these 
years,” he said at last. 

“Yes, and that is the reason I let you 
have your way about this thing,” explained 
the General. “ And I must say I am 
sorry for you if you can’t do anything 
with such a weapon as this.” Raoul took 
his hand and gave it an affectionate 
squeeze. 

“ Is there any end to what you are 
going to do for me ? ” he asked. 

“ I have n’t finished yet,” put in the 
General. Raoul did not notice the re- 
mark, but went on : 

“ Almost the first thing I remember is 
your kindness to me, and it has been so 
all my life. I never have done anything 


Malakoff Makes a Communication. 99 

to deserve it, and if I have been told the 
truth, it was in return for anything but 
kindness.” General Malakoff turned in 
his chair and looked at the young man 
keenly. 

“ I have always wanted to ask what you 
knew, but have been afraid to. You have 
never given a hint,” he said anxiously. 
Raoul looked away for a second, hesitated, 
then said bravely : 

u I was told when we were in Paris — of 
course nobody knows anything about me 
here — that after years of friendship, my 
father quarrelled with you for — an unjust 
suspicion.” 

“ You think it was unjust then ?” 

“ I know it was. You would never en- 
tertain for a second the ambitions you 
have for my future if there were a grain of 
truth in the report ” — he caught his breath 
before he finished — “ that I was your son.” 
He looked the General full in the face, 
and the General returned his gaze without 
lowering his eyes. 

“ Raoul,” he began gravely, “ I will 
defend myself to you when I would not 


IOO 


The Broken Ring . 


to another person on this earth. I have 
often wondered how much you knew, but 
was afraid to say anything for fear of put- 
ting ideas into your head that were not 
there before. I will tell you the truth. 
I would swear it, but I know you will 
believe me. I never was your mother’s 
lover, and your father did us great injus- 
tice. He was unkind to her and I was 
sorry for her, and, yes, I loved her as I 
have never loved any other woman, but 
she was not a woman to stoop. We 
never acknowledged it but once in all 
those years, and then it was entirely un- 
premeditated and unintentional, in a mo- 
ment of great excitement. I have kissed 
her hand, but that was all. You believe 
me?” The young man nodded, and the 
General went on : “I have not led an 
especially virtuous life, but whatever I have 
shrunk from, it has been the thought of 
her that has kept me back. She was a 
woman in a million, and I have had a 
living reminder of her in you, for you are 
very much like her, Raoul. And it is 
this that I cannot forgive your father for, 


Malcikojf Makes a Communication, ioi 

his not appreciating that woman and recog- 
nizing that she could not have been untrue 
to him. But I have loved you as if you 
were my own son, and being separated 
from you so much is one of the hardest 
things I have to bear.” They sat in si- 
lence for ten minutes or so. The younger 
man was the first to rouse himself. 

“ I think I ’ll go back now,” he said, 
stretching out his long legs. “ Has my 
General any commands?’ 

“ Not back to the mill ? ” exclaimed the 
General. 

“ Why not ? It is moonlight, and I ’ll 
take the liberty of borrowing a fresh 
horse.” The General was about to re- 
monstrate, but Delorme interrupted him : 
“ I ’ll stay, of course, if General Malakoff 
orders me to, but not otherwise.” Then, 
changing his tone : “ Please let me go. I 
can’t be so far away after what you have 
told me. Besides, I think I might find it 
easier to believe if I were nearer.” Gen- 
eral Malakoff smiled. 

“ O these young lovers ! ” he exclaimed. 
“ Go, my boy, and may my blessing 


102 The Broken Ring . 

go with you, if you think it is worth 
having.” 

“ And they call you such a hard, cold 
man,” murmured Raoul. 

- “ And so I am. You are my one soft 
spot, Raoul, and I wish you were n’t so 
well aware of the fact, you young rascal. 
You ’ll get me into trouble some day by 
indulging you. The idea of giving Prin- 
cess Lenore into the custody of a boy like 
you and sending her off to that God-for- 
saken place. I ought to be kicked out of 
the army.” Raoul only laughed for an- 
swer, and was about to leave the room 
without another word when the General 
called him back. 

“ Wait,” he said, “ I have something of 
yours.” He went to a narrow camp-bed 
in a corner of the room and, stooping, 
drew a despatch box out from under it. 
This he brought over to the table and 
opened with a key that hung from his 
watch chain, Raoul, in the meanwhile, 
looking on with great curiosity. From 
this he took a smaller box and, opening 
it by a secret spring, handed it to his com- 


Malakoff Makes a Communication . 103 

panion. Raoul’s eyes lighted up when he 
saw what was within and he uttered an ex- 
clamation. 

'‘You remember it then?” asked the 
General, in surprise. 

“ I should say I did. It was my great- 
est treasure, and I was heart-broken when 
you took it away from me. Oh ! ” he ex- 
claimed, a light breaking over his face. 
“ So that was what it meant. I might 
have known. How could I have been so 
stupid. I remember it all so well, — going 
to the strange big house and being awak- 
ened in the night after I had been put to 
bed and being frightened as they took me 
through the long, dark passages, and the 
lights and the gorgeous robes and all the 
rest of it. Oh, I remember it all, but I 
never knew what it meant until to-night ! 
Now, at last, I believe it. But I must be 
off,” he broke off impatiently, and wpuld 
have gone that second, but the General 
stopped him again : 

“What else do you remember?” he 
asked curiously. 

“ I remember it all, one thing in par- 


104 7 /k? Broken Ring . 

ticular, but I will tell you all about it the 
next time I come. Don’t keep me now. 
I am too far away and anything might 
happen while I am gone.” 

He was so impatient that the General 
let him go after giving him an order or 
two. He opened the door and disap- 
peared into the darkness of the house in 
which the other inhabitants were sleeping. 
Telling the guard at the door to send his 
man after him in the morning, he saddled 
one of the General’s best horses for him- 
self, and rode off by the light of a faint, 
waning moon, half hidden by clouds. It 
was daybreak when he reached the mill. 
The last few miles up the steep mountain 
road Raoul had dismounted and walked 
beside his horse, drinking in long breaths 
of the fresh early-morning air, and smiling 
occasionally to himself with a happy 
thought. 

And so it happened that the Captain’s 
voice calling to Balder was the first sound 
that the Princess heard as she opened her 
eyes the next morning. 

She waited for his appearance that 


Malakoff Makes a Communication. 105 

afternoon with some little anxiety ; and 
when he came, his manner seemed differ- 
ent to her — less unfriendly and impassive. 
During his absence, she had come to a 
resolution, and when he turned to go, she 
proceeded to put it into effect. 

“ Captain Delorme,” she began. 

“Your Highness,” he replied formally. 

“ Can you not give me some news ? 
Does General Malakoff object to my 
knowing what is going on?” 

“He has given me no such orders,” 
said Delorme. “ There is very little to 
tell. Since Your Highness has been here 
there have been several skirmishes, rather 
indecisive on the whole, but nothing of 
any importance, and just at present there 
is an armistice of several days between the 
two armies.” 

“ And my father ? ” she asked anxiously. 

“ I believe the Duke is at the Palace at 
the. Capital. He is not with the army. I 
saw General Malakoff last night, and I am 
sure he would have spoken of it if any- 
thing were the matter with him. Is there 
anything else I can tell you, Princess ? ” 


106 The Broken Ring . 

“ General Malakoff is a terrible man, is 
he not ? ” she asked. “ He is perfectly 
charming, but I know our peasants make 
the sign of the cross when his name is 
mentioned ; and my father has often said 
that' the worst misfortune that ever hap- 
pened to us was when the King of Koni- 
greich sent for him to command his 
army.” 

“ I have some considerable acquaintance 
with him for my position,” Raoul an- 
swered, “ and I think he is greatly mis- 
judged. He is as fine a man as he is a 
soldier, and I believe nobody denies that. 
He is a little hard, I admit, but he has had 
a great deal to make him so.” 

“ They say at home that he is the power 
behind the throne now that the King is so 
infirm.” 

“He has a great deal of power ; but the 
King is not a man to let the reins drop 
from his hands so long as he is alive.” 

“You will have a bad exchange when 
he dies, if all the reports about the Crown 
Prince are true,” remarked the Princess. 

“When he comes to the throne, I say, 


Malakojf Makes a Communication . 107 

God help the people, for they will need 
it,” Delorme replied solemnly. 

“ And yet he does n’t show his cloven 
hoof,” the Princess continued. “ I have 
met him a number of times ; and last year 
he did me the honor of demanding my 
hand.” 

'‘Your Highness did well to refuse 
him,” said the Captain. 

“ Oh, I shall never marry any one,” the 
Princess began emphatically ; and then, 
remembering to whom she was talking so 
familiarly, she interrupted herself abruptly 
and dismissed the Captain, who left her 
presence with a smile on his lips, not at 
all dissatisfied with his interview. 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE SCENE CHANGES. 

T HE relations of prisoner and jailer 
were rather more amicable for the 
next two days, but on the third 
hostilities were renewed. That afternoon 
the Captain mounted the stairs a little 
earlier than usual and, with apologies to 
the Princess, gave orders to the two sol- 
diers who accompanied him to nail pieces 
of sacking over the windows, with the ex- 
ception of a foot or two at the top. 

“ I regret it exceedingly, but I find it 
necessary,” he remarked, apologetically. 
He did not explain that a couple of sus- 
picious-looking hunters had been seen 
near by, but had succeeded in escaping 
the soldiers who challenged them, and 
that there were rumors of scouting par- 
ties from Herzogthum being in the neigh- 
borhood. 

108 


The Scene Changes . 109 

“ It does not matter in the least,” the 
Princess replied haughtily. She had not 
known what to make of her jailer’s man- 
ner ; it had changed in some indefinable 
way, and once or twice she had caught 
him looking at her in a way she did not 
understand, and then smiling to himself 
as if at some happy recollection. Her 
own manner had thawed considerably in 
spite of all her efforts ; but this additional 
and, as she thought, superfluous priva- 
tion brought their relations back to the 
point where they had been previous to 
Delorme’s visit to General Malakoff. For 
the next two days, he was not encouraged 
to make any remarks beyond the neces- 
sary inquiries. 

On the day after that, Lenore was 
aroused from the day-dream with which 
she was trying to cheat an hour or so out 
of the long afternoon by the frantic clat- 
ter of hoofs on the paved court in front 
of the mill. She went into Louison’s 
room, which was on that side of the 
building, and looked out through a tiny 
hole Louison had made in the sacking. 


I IO 


The Broken Ring . 


The Princess would have been too proud 
to make one for herself, but she could not 
resist one already made. Captain De- 
lorme had come out on the steps and 
was listening intently to the story a sol- 
dier was breathlessly narrating. Without 
a moment’s hesitation, he gave some or- 
ders to the men standing in the court-yard, 
the exact meaning of which the unceasing 
noise of the river kept the Princess from 
catching. He looked very handsome, 
standing there bareheaded with the light 
full on his fresh, clean-shaven face, and 
Lenore, in the midst of her alarm, re- 
marked it with a sigh. She turned to 
Louison, who was telling her beads in 
a corner, and tried to rouse her to share 
her excitement, but it was no use. 

“ Whatever comes is the will of God, 
Your Highness,” she answered com- 
posedly. 

The heavy doors of the mill were shut, 
and the horses that were picketed in the 
court brought into the granary, which was 
used as a stable. There were noises be- 
neath that suggested the moving of fur- 


1 1 1 


The Scene Changes . 

niture and the building of barricades 
in front of the windows. The clank 
of weapons and the confused noise of 
mingled voices came up to where the 
Princess knelt on the floor, peering down 
through her spy-hole into the middle of 
the court-yard where Captain Delorme 
stood, calm except for the animation in 
his face, issuing his orders and seeing for 
himself that they were carried out. It 
was only ten minutes before he turned 
and came in, but it seemed an hour to 
the Princess. Then she heard his eager 
step on the stairs, and had just time to 
return to her own room before he was 
demanding admittance. 

“ I have to ask that Your Highness will 
keep away from the range of the windows,” 
he said composedly, with no trace of ex- 
citement in his manner. “ I have reason 
to expect an attack, and stray bullets often 
do mischief. I hope you will not be any 
more frightened than you can help,” he 
added kindly. She did not answer, but 
her eyes sparkled. Here was hope of re- 
lease. The next minute, for some unac- 


I 12 


The Broken Ring . 


countable reason, she did not feel so glad 
at the prospect. With Captain Delorme’s 
withdrawal all her happy anticipations de- 
parted, leaving only vague forebodings 
and terror. In her imagination, she saw 
the figure she had just been watching 
from her window, with its superabundance 
of animal life and strength, lying full 
length on the ground, the face with its 
splendid coloring changed to pallor, and 
wide-open eyes staring up at the sky. 
This vision was so vivid that it over- 
whelmed her with the force of a presenti- 
ment. 

The minute the Captain had gone, she 
went back to her loophole. She did not 
have long to wait, for she had just estab- 
lished herself there when the sound of 
many hoofs was heard mingled with the 
clanking of weapons, and a second later a 
small party of horsemen in the red uni- 
form of her own country rode into the 
court-yard. Lenore recognized in their 
leader an officer whom she had seen occa- 
sionally at her father’s court, Major Rath- 
bon. He rode boldly up to the great 


1 x 3 


The Scene Changes . 

door of the mill, banged on it with the 
handle of his sword, and demanded ad- 
mittance in a voice that could have been 
heard a mile. Then he retreated a few 
yards. The door of the mill opened and 
Captain Delorme stepped out on the 
steps. 

“ What do you want?” Lenore could 
hear his words even above the roar of the 
water. 

“We want our Princess, the Princess 
Lenore of Herzogthum, and by Hell ! 
we ’ll have her.” The Captain’s answer 
did not reach the Princess. 

“ Fire ! ” shouted the Major, and a 
cloud of bullets was poured forth before 
Delorme could retreat. He staggered 
back and was received within the heavy 
door. A fiendish yell accompanied by an 
answering volley came from the mill. The 
assailing party fired again and again, but 
except for breaking the few remaining 
panes of glass, the good bullets might 
have been peas from a pea-shooter for all 
the damage they did to the thick walls, 

while every shot from within told. The 

8 


1 14 The Broken Ring . 

Major realized this and retreated out of 
range. 

None of this the Princess saw, for she 
had sunk on the floor in a heap, with 
hardly enough wits left to wonder if a 
tragedy had taken place below. She was 
roused by steps on the stairs and rushed 
to the landing to see Sergeant Kriegmann 
and another soldier carrying up a lifeless- 
looking form. 

“ We want to bring the Captain up 
here out of the confusion, Your High- 
ness,” the Sergeant said gravely. 

“ Is he dead?” Lenore asked tremu- 
lously. 

‘‘No, Your Highness, only fainted. He 
will come to presently. He was only hit in 
the arm.” Lenore breathed a sigh of relief. 

“ Put him here,” she said, motioning 
to her own bed. “ Louison and I will do 
anything we can for him.” 

Still after the men had deposited their 
burden and departed, she did not call 
Louison from her beads, but getting a 
basin of water and a handkerchief, she 
proceeded herself to bathe Delormes 


The Scene Changes . 1 1 5 

forehead. His face was ghostly pale and 
his eyes half closed, with a lifeless, unna- 
tural look about them, but she saw with 
thanksgiving that his arm was still bleed- 
ing through its bandages. He could not 
be dead. A minute later he opened his 
eyes with a look of wonder in them. 

“You were shot,” she explained, “and 
the Sergeant brought you up here.” In a 
second he was himself. He started to get 
up, but the pain in his arm made him feel 
faint, and he lay back again. 

“Are they driven off?” he demanded. 
“ They can’t force us here. They would n’t 
be idiots enough to try.” 

“ I will see,” replied the Princess, and 
presently she came back with the news 
that there was not a redcoat in sight. 

“ Call Sergeant Kriegmann,” he then 
commanded, and the Princess obeyed as 
if she had been the last-enlisted soldier. 

“ They will come back later,” he said, 
when he had listened to the Sergeant’s 
account of how the enemy had consulted 
awhile and then ridden off. “We must 
get out of here immediately. We can’t 


1 1 6 The Broken Ring . 

stand a regular siege. Princess, I will 
not intrude any longer. Help me down 
stairs, Kriegmann.” Lenore began to 
remonstrate, but the Sergeant, knowing 
the uselessness of it when the Captain 
had made up his mind, did what he asked 
without a word. Delorme grew very pale 
as he crossed the room, leaning on the 
Sergeant’s shoulder, but he did not utter 
a sound. He left the Princess with that 
aching, half-angry, left-out-in-the-cold feel- 
ing that women, particularly women ac- 
customed to supremacy, have in moments 
of active life when danger dethrones 
them, and, for the time being, they and 
their charms are thrust into the back- 
ground with other unimportant things. 

She went back to the window, and 
watched soldiers set out in various direc- 
tions, evidently with orders to carry out. 
In half an hour one returned with a big 
bundle in his arms. A few minutes later, 
Sergeant Kriegmann came up with the 
latter, which proved to be two suits of 
peasants’ clothing, and requested the 
Princess and Louison to put them on im- 


The Scene Changes . 1 1 7 

mediately, and be ready to leave in ten 
minutes. They might each take a small 
bundle of necessaries with them. 

“ How is Captain Delorme ? ” the Prin- 
cess asked anxiously. The Sergeant 
shook his head. 

“ He will act as if nothing were the 
matter with him, Your Highness,” he said 
despairingly. 

Fifteen minutes later they set out, the 
Princess and Louison accompanied by 
Delorme and half a dozen soldiers. The 
Sergeant and the rest of the company 
were to remain at the mill to cover their 
retreat. Poor Balder had to be detained 
by force, and the last thing the Princess 
heard as she left the scene of her captiv- 
ity were his piteous howls, audible above 
the roaring of the water. Delorme’s arm 
was hung in a sling, but, as the Sergeant 
had said, he acted as if nothing were the 
matter with him. They started on the 
road towards Herzogthum, much to Le- 
nore’s surprise, for she had expected to 
be taken back to headquarters, and 
rode for several miles in silence. Occa- 


1 1 8 The Broken Ring, 

' sionally their little party was re-enforced 
by one of .the soldiers whom she had 
seen leaving the mill an hour or so 
before, each of whom was questioned 
eagerly by the Captain, but in such a 
low voice that she could not catch the 
drift of their remarks. It was getting 
dark, and the trees of the forest around 
them loomed up in such queer shapes that 
she began to get a little frightened, al- 
though she knew she had nothing to fear 
in any alternative. To her surprise, all 
through the encounter at the mill and 
during this ride through the forest in the 
dusk, she found herself identifying herself 
with her enemies instead of her friends, 
and that, in spite of herself, her heart 
beat for the blue coats instead of the red. 
She wished now that Captain Delorme’s 
face would not look so set and white, that 
he would not ignore her so completely, 
would at least address some commonplace 
remark to her. Perhaps he was realizing 
now that she was his enemy, and that 
what he was suffering now was because of 
her. 


The Scene Changes . 1 1 9 

At the end of an hour they halted, and, 
at the Captain’s orders, two of the soldiers 
looked to the girths of the women’s sad- 
dles. “We are going up a rough trail, 
and it would not do to have them turn,” 
he said to the Princess, addressing her for 
the first time. 

They were just about to start on again, 
Delorme and the two women at the rear, 
when one of the soldiers in the advance 
guard shouted out an alarm. A body of 
armed men was approaching. In a second 
Delorme had seized the bridle of the 
Princess’s horse with his available hand 
and, ordering Louison to follow, led the 
way directly up the steep bank above the 
road and into the thick forest. The Prin- 
cess was so startled that she did not even 
protest. There was very little under- 
brush, but the ascent was steep, and there 
was only light enough to distinguish the 
trees. At first they heard a shot or two 
and then the firing ceased. Lenore ex- 
pected to hear pursuers behind them 
every minute until she remembered that 
the approaching party could have no 


120 


The Broken Ring. 


means of knowing that they were in 
company with the soldiers. Delorme did 
not speak for a long time, except to re- 
mark that there were times when running 
away was the proper thing to do, but 
seemed wholly absorbed in finding his 
way. At last after half an hour’s riding 
they scrambled down a bank into a well 
defined trail. 

“Here we are!” he exclaimed. “I 
thought I could not be mistaken. This 
little encounter has changed my plans, 
Princess,” he went on. “ I was going to 
conduct you by a short cut over the 
mountains to Friedberg, where a large 
detachment of our army is encamped. I 
should not dare to do that now, without 
any escort, so I am going to take you to 
a little retreat of my own, which I occa- 
sionally use when I am out hunting. You 
see I provisioned it when the war broke 
out in preparation for some emergency, 
though I never dreamed I should have 
the honor of entertaining a princess there. 
It will take us about an hour more to 
reach it. I hope it won’t tire you too 
much.” 


The Scene Changes. 


I 2 I 


“ It won’t tire me, but yourself, Captain 
Delorme, do you think you will be able 
to stand it ?” He took no notice of her 
question except by an impatient move- 
ment of his head, but continued : 

“ I could not take you to headquarters, 
as your soldiers went in that direction, so 
there was very little choice.” They rode 
on in silence through the gathering dark- 
ness, the horses, left to their own devices, 
finding the way themselves. At last 
Lenore spoke : 

“ Captain Delorme.” 

“Yes, Princess.” 

“ Do you really consider us your pris- 
oners still ? Don’t you think two able- 
bodied women are a match for a man with 
his right arm disabled?” Her tone was 
almost playful. Delorme gave a short 
laugh. Evidently that side of the ques- 
tion had not struck him. 

“ But I am armed, Princess, and you 
are not. Besides, you could never find 
your way through the forest alone,” he 
protested. 

“But can you shoot with your left 
hand?” 


122 


The Broken Ring. 


“ I can.” 

“ Well, there seems to be plenty of our 
soldiers around,” the Princess continued. 

“ On the other hand, Your Highness is 
just as likely to fall in with Konigreich 
soldiers, and in this dress you might have 
difficulty in making them believe that you 
are the Princess Lenore. Besides, they 
might not be any too polite to you if they 
did believe you.” 

“ I had n’t thought of that. Well, I 
believe I will go with you after all. Still, 
it is voluntary. I don’t consider myself 
your prisoner in the least. You could 
never see to shoot me, it is so dark. Be- 
sides ” She was riding beside him, for 

the trail was a little broader just here 
and, leaning over, she coolly helped her- 
self to a pistol that hung at his hip. 
Raoul only laughed. 

“ Keep it if you like. You may need 
it,” he said. 

“If that ’s the way you look at it — ” 
the Princess began. “ Anyway, I don’t 
know but that I am more afraid of it than 
I am of you. You can never tell what 


The Scene Changes . 123 

they are going to do. Take it back, 
please.” 

“ I can’t on this side,” returned the Cap- 
tain. “ Besides, having taken it, it is only 
fair you should put it back.” He stopped 
his horse and she restored it to its place. 

Her tone, her whole manner, had under- 
gone a change. Delorme could hardly 
believe it was the same woman who had 
treated him with scorn the day before, 
and his spirits rose in spite of the pain in 
his arm. Lenore, too, felt singularly hap- 
py. The dark ride through the forest,' 
the companionship, the element of danger, 
the shots in the distance, all had excited 
her strangely. She would not have had 
it different. Her comfortable bed in her 
father’s palace no longer appeared su- 
premely attractive to her, and the life 
there seemed unspeakably tame beside 
that she was now living, for, all at once, 
all the trials and hardships of the past days 
were transformed into the most delightful 
events of her existence. She gave a 
little laugh to herself as these thoughts 
ran through her head. 


124 


The Broken Ring . 


“ What is it, Princess ? ” asked Delorme. 
He spoke to her now as an equal, Lenore 
noticed, and his tone was such as one 
uses to a friend. 

“ It was just that I was thinking how 
nice it is,” she answered. 

“ How nice !” he exclaimed in amaze- 
ment, and then she realized what she had 
been saying, and explained : 

“ I mean the air is so soft and the odor 
of the pines so sweet, and this little 
breath of wind is so exciting. It is just 
enough to blow the hair back from my 
forehead. I don’t like wind in the day- 
time, but I love it at night. It suggests 
all sorts of delicious things, And it is so 
nice to get away from that old mill and 
to feel a horse under me again.” Raoul 
had never heard her speak so before, 
never let go of herself the least bit in the 
world, and he laughed, as she had done, 
from pure pleasure. 

“ Ah, Princess, do you feel such things, 
too ? ” he said, and then a more violent 
twinge of pain took hold of him, and he 
had all he could do not to fall off his 


The Scene Changes . 


125 


horse. “ Here we are,” he went on a few 
minutes later, dismounting with difficulty 
from his horse at a level spot, beyond 
which the trail appeared to descend. Le- 
nore was on the ground before he could 
offer to help her. “ We shall have to let 
our horses go. Do you think your maid 
could unsaddle them ? I am afraid I 
cannot do it.” 

“ I don’t know, she can do almost any- 
thing ; but, at all events, here is somebody 
who can,” and, turning up the flap of 
Delorme’s saddle, she started to loosen 
the girths in a most professional manner. 
He was beginning to protest, but she 
silenced him. 

“ Sit down !” she ordered. “ You are 
not fit to stand.” And a feeling of faint- 
ness coming over him, he was glad to lie 
down on the ground and let her have her 
way. Louison had been a little behind, 
and by the time she rode up, the Princess 
had taken off the saddles and bridles and 
had hidden them in a clump of bushes. 
Louison, the imperturbable, did the same 
to her horse, and the three tired animals 


126 The Broken Ring. 

began to graze with neighs of satisfac- 
tion. 

“Is there any water around here ? ” 
Lenore asked. 

“ Plenty. They will find it for them- 
selves, ” the Captain answered, suppress- 
ing a desire to groan. Rising to his feet 
with a great effort, he led the way through 
the trees to the north of the trail with the 
manner of one who knows exactly where 
he is going. The Princess picked up her 
bundle and gave one that had been tied 
behind Delorme’s saddle to Louison to 
carry. 

“ I am letting you into one of my great- 
est secrets,” he said to her, as he stopped 
before a clump of bushes that, in so far as 
she could make out in the starlight, ap- 
peared to be growing out of a huge pile 
of rocks. “Take hold of my coat, and 
let Louison take hold of your gown,” 
he continued, as, forcing a way through 
the thicket with his body, he led them 
along a narrow passage with solid rock on 
each side, with which she came in contact 
more than once. The ground underneath 


The Scene Changes . 


127 


was covered with loose stones, and every 
now and then she slipped on one and lost 
her footing. She would have thought it 
all a dream if it had not been for the feel- 
ing of the cloth her hand grasped and 
Louison’s labored breathing behind her. 


CHAPTER VII. 


IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

A T last they came into an open space, 
with clear starlight overhead and 
apparently surrounded by tall 
palisades of rock. A big pile of some- 
thing was at the farther end of it, and 
leading the way towards this, Delorme 
fell on the ground beside it. He had 
fainted away. The big pile proved to be 
a heap of brushwood, and, feeling in his 
pockets until she found some matches, 
the Princess proceeded to light it. Light 
was the first necessity. In a second the 
flames leaped high into the air. Leftore 
looked around. They appeared to be in 
an irregular enclosure of about a hundred 
feet in diameter in its broadest part, and 
surrounded by high walls of solid rock. 
Several trees grew in this, and opposite 
128 


In the Mountains . 


129 


the fire was a cave, in which she distin- 
guished a heap of dried pine branches and 
some blankets. Also a quantity of tin 
cans and boxes. A little spring bubbled 
out of the rock near by and fell into a 
basin. The Princess took in these de- 
tails in one hurried look, and then she 
turned her attention to the Captain. The 
deathly look on his face as the firelight 
shone on it frightened her. Running to 
the spring, she dipped her handkerchief 
in the icy water and laid it on his fore- 
head. Louison came out of the cave with 
a bottle of wine that she had found and a 
cup, and, breaking off the neck of the 
bottle, Lenore poured a little into the cup 
and forced it down his throat. In a min- 
ute he opened his eyes. 

“ Lenore,” he said, wonderingly, trying 
to raise himself. It was the first time 
that any man but her father had called 
her by her name, and a thrill went over 
her that was most unlike the anger she 
would have expected herself to feel. 

“ Lie still,” she said, with a little break 
in her voice, “ Louison is heating some 
9 


130 The Broken Ring . 

water and is going to attend to your arm. 
She knows all about that sort of thing.” 
The Captain had closed his eyes again 
and lay so still that, except for the 
strained look in the muscles of his face 
and an involuntary shiver, she would have 
thought he had fainted again. When his 
arm was bandaged, he opened his eyes 
with a sigh of satisfaction. 

“ Where did she get the stuff?” he 
asked in his natural voice. 

“ Sergeant Kriegmann brought it to 
me with a roll of linen just as we were 
about to start, and begged me to take it. 
He was sure you would never deign to 
think of it yourself. It seems he knows 
you.” Raoul smiled faintly. 

“ Kriegmann is an old mollycoddle. 
You ’d think I was his last baby from the 
way he treats me.” 

“ Do you think you could eat some- 
thing ? ” Lenore suggested. “ Louison has 
been investigating and here she comes.” 

“ I might make a try at it. There were 
some bread and things tied on behind my 
saddle, but I believe I left them there.” 


In the Mountains . 1 3 1 

“ Louison brought it along and has 
opened it. See here what we have.” 

It was a miscellaneous meal that Loui- 
son set before them. There was only 
one plate, which was tin, but this did not 
matter so much, as the Princess had to pre- 
pare her companion’s food for him. She 
could have called Louison, but she found 
it strangely and unexpectedly pleasant to 
do a service for a fellow-creature. Raoul 
looked at her intently as she was cutting 
a piece of bread for him and said seriously 
in a low voice : 

“You need not be afraid, Princess. I 
shall never presume on your kindness or 
take advantage of your pity.” 

“ You do not need to tell me that,” she 
answered cordially. She herself made a 
good meal, but Raoul hardly touched 
anything except a little bread soaked in 
wine. 

“ I am afraid you are getting feverish,” 
said the Princess, and, reaching over in a 
matter-of-course way, she laid her hand 
on his forehead. 

“ Oh, jion’t bother about me ! I am all 


1 3 2 


The Broken Ring. 


right,” exclaimed Raoul. “ Louison shall 
bring me some blankets out of the cave, 
and I ’ll go to sleep and sleep it off. You 
will find a very good bed of pine needles 
and twigs in there.” 

“ Sleep out here in the dew ! I think I 
see myself letting you. You would be 
dead before morning. If you won’t con- 
sider yourself, think how extremely un- 
pleasant it would be for me if such a thing 
happened.” Raoul protested in vain and, 
feeling too weak for further argument, he 
finally let Louison help him into the cave 
and cover him up. 

There were numerous little sheltered 
nooks among the rocks, and Lenore chose 
one of these for herself and rolled herself 
up in a pair of blankets. She was too 
excited to sleep, however, and it was a 
long time before she fell into a doze, from 
which she was awakened by the sound of 
Captain Delorme’s voice coming from the 
cave, At first she thought he was calling 
some one, but soon decided that he was 
delirious. Louison had discovered a lan- 
tern and this the Princess Jit by the remains 


In the Mountains . 


133 


of the fire, and, going over to the cave, 
found him apparently burning up with 
fever. He had thrown the blankets off 
and was uttering disconnected words and 
sentences in which her own name occurred 
frequently. It was on this account that 
she did not call Louison, who was sleeping 
on the ground a little way off. She felt 
very helpless, but the thought came to 
her that he ought not to be uncovered in 
the chill of the early-morning mountain 
air, so she pulled the blankets over him. 
Next she put a wet bandage on his fore- 
head, and then she did not know what to 
do, so she sat there beside him, feeling 
more thoroughly frightened than she had 
ever been in her life before. After a lit- 
tle his words subsided into a confused 
mumble and then he became still. Once 
he opened his eyes and looked at her, and 
she fancied there was a gleam of recog- 
nition in them until he said to her calmly 
and distinctly : 

“ You know you are my wife.” Either 
he was wholly out of his head or else he 
took her for some one else. He might 


1 34 The Broken Ring . 

have a wife somewhere, though the possi- 
bility had never occurred to her before. 
To be sure he had never mentioned a 
wife, but neither had he spoken of his 
father or his mother, and it was to be 
presumed that he had them. The one 
piece of personal information that he had 
ever given her was that he was a native 
of Konigreich. 

He stopped talking after a little, and 
the Princess awakened Louison to attend 
to his arm, which apparently was paining 
him a great deal from the way he tried to 
tear off the bandages. After a fresh dress- 
ing was applied, he seemed to sink into a 
sort of stupor ; and leaving him under the 
care of Louison, the Princess went back to 
her improvised bed. Before she went to 
sleep again, she had fully convinced her- 
self that Captain Delorme had a wife and, 
perhaps, a family somewhere. She was 
awakened by the rays of the sun falling 
full on her, and the possible Mrs. Delorme 
was the first thought that came into her 
head ; but by the common-sense light of 
day she dismissed it as an absurdity. 


In the Mountains. 


135 


Captain Delorme did not seem in the 
least like a married man. Her next 
thought was for him, and, going over to 
the cave, she found him asleep. He 
seemed less feverish. After she had made 
as much of a toilet as she could by the 
spring, she sent Louison off to get some 
breakfast for them, and sat down to watch 
by their patient herself. She had discov- 
ered some knitting in the pouch-like 
pocket that completed her costume, and, 
taking this out, she began to knit on a big 
gray stocking. Presently she heard a 
sound from the bed of pine boughs, and, 
raising her eyes, met those of the Captain 
with an expression of perfect conscious- 
ness in them. 

“ You are better,” she said, leaning over 
and laying her hand on his forehead. 
“ Yes, you are hardly feverish at all. 
Louison will come and attend to your arm 
in a minute, and then you must eat some- 
thing.” 

“ Have I been out of my head?” he 
asked. “ I have a vague consciousness of 
a lot of things having happened.” 


136 


The Broken Ring . 


“ A little,” she answered, trying to make 
her voice sound perfectly natural. She 
apparently did not succeed, however, for 
he looked alarmed, and said uneasily : 

“I hope I did n’t say anything very 
dreadful. I hear so much low talk first 
and last, and they say it all comes out at 
such times.” 

“You said nothing distinguishable ex- 
cept one remark about your wife.” 

“ My wife ? I have n’t any.” 

“It is strange you should speak of her 
then,” Lenore returned, coldly, feeling a 
mischievous impulse to tease him by ap- 
pearing suspicious. 

“It must have been a dream-wife then. 
We poor old bachelors have to console 
ourselves some way.” Lenore had to 
laugh, the contrast between his words and 
his fresh, boyish-looking face was so strik- 
ing. Raoul laughed too as he said : 

“You don’t look any too old yourself, 
Princess, in that costume. You have 
done your hair in the regular peasant 
style, I see.” 

“ I thought I might as well make up for 


In the Mountains . 


137 


the part, and it is very comfortable. I 
really am very glad to have these clothes. 
I feel so free and unconfined in them. 
Besides, the one gown I had at the mill 
got wet in some way or other and shrank 
in half a dozen different directions.” She 
turned away to hide the laugh that would 
get into the corners of her mouth. De- 
lorme laughed too at the same recollec- 
tion, and Lenore, being anxious to make 
a diversion, called Louison to come and 
dress his arm. 

The pain was evidently very great and 
big drops of perspiration stood out on his 
forehead as Louison manipulated the ban- 
dages. He was grasping the blankets 
with his left hand, when the Princess 
slipped her soft slender one into his and 
said gently, with a sound in her voice that 
was suspiciously like tears : 

“ Hold it as tight as you like. You 
don’t hurt me.” When Louison turned 
away, he raised her hand to his lips and 
kissed it before he let it go. 

“ I shall never forget this, Princess,” 
he said, lifting his eyes full of gratitude 


138 The Broken Ring. 

to hers that were swimming in tears, and 
turning them quickly away again. “ I am 
not much accustomed to ceremony,” he 
went on a second later, “ and if I occa- 
sionally forget the proper forms, I hope 
Your Highness will remember that the 
respect and reverence are in my heart.” 

“ I don’t think you ever treated me 
with so much deference as since we came 
here,” the Princess answered, trying to 
speak lightly. 

“ That is because I am such a contrary 
fellow,” he explained. “ I have always 
felt it, but so long as your manner de- 
manded it, I did not choose to pay it ; but 
since you have treated me less like one of 
the lower animals, I have felt differently.” 
He laughed a little as he said this ; his 
voice did not sound at all aggrieved. 

“ I am afraid I treat you too uncere- 
moniously now,” she began, “ but when a 
man is flat on his back and has need of 
you, you can’t be too polite, you know. 
Besides, ceremony and this mise-en-scene 
are too ridiculous a combination. You 
need not be afraid of offending me, Cap- 


In the Mountains. 


139 


tain Delorme. I do not take offence 
readily, and I do get very tired of for- 
mality. T reat me like a human being who 
has not had the misfortune to be born a 
princess while we stay here. The defer- 
ence that a gentleman pays to a woman 
will satisfy me without any of the forms 
due to my rank. You need not say 
‘Your Highness.’ Still, it is not neces- 
sary to call me ‘ Lenore,’ as you did 
last night,” she added with a smile. The 
young man did not seem much discon- 
certed as he answered : 

“Did I really?” Then went on: “I 
wonder how many men there are in the 
world who would n’t be afraid to be deliri- 
ous. I suppose it is different with women.” 

“ There may be some,” Lenore an- 
swered, “ but I am not of that kind. I 
know I should be very much distressed at 
the idea.” 

“ I don’t believe you have many sins,” 
Raoul remarked seriously. 

“No sins, perhaps, but a great many 
follies.” 

“ Well,” he replied, “ I have n’t any use 


140 The Broken Ring. 

for people who can’t commit follies occa- 
sionally. They ought to be translated.” 

“We shall probably never see each 
other again,” the Princess continued, 
following her own thoughts rather than 
his words. 

“ I am not so sure of that,” Raoul re- 
plied, “but still, as you say, it does n’t 
matter. You may be sure I shall not talk 
of this little episode. I suppose you can 
trust Louison,” he added. 

“ It is easy to dispose of her. I will 
give her money enough to enter a par- 
ticular convent that she has set her heart 
upon ; and, besides, I don’t believe it 
would ever occur to her to say anything 
about it. Her thoughts are always busy 
in the New Jerusalem. Have n’t you 
noticed the rapt expression with which 
she goes about her work ? I am always 
expecting her to do absent-minded things, 
but she never does. I don’t believe there 
is much danger of my telling, either,” she 
added. 

“ I suppose you will tell your husband 
some day ? ” 


In the Mountains . 


141 

“ I shall never have any to tell. I am 
never going to marry, for good and suffi- 
cient reasons.” 

“ I suppose I must n’t ask what they 
are?” 

“It would not do you any good if you 
did, for I most certainly shall not tell you. 
And now I am going to see what keeps 
Louison so long with your breakfast,” and, 
pocketing her knitting, the Princess left 
the cave. 

Delorme’s wound was not very serious, 
and it was only a few days before he was 
able to be up and around, with his arm in 
a sling. 

“ I suppose I can’t claim to be treated 
like an invalid much longer,” he said one 
evening when they were seated by the 
camp-fire. 

“ It is quite time you were convalescent,” 
said the Princess. “ Our stores are nearly 
gone and there is very little more fire- 
wood in here. What do you suppose 
they think has become of us?” she broke 
off. 


There are very few people to wonder 


142 


The Broken Ring . 


what has become of me unfortunately, — 
old Kriegmann and one other.” 

“ Is that one a man or a woman ? ” 
asked Lenore, for they had grown very 
friendly while he had been dependent on 
her. 

“ A man. There is n’t a woman nearer 
than Paris who ever thinks about me.” 

“ Except me,” said Lenore, frankly. “ I 
shall think of you very often, for you are 
the only man I have ever known inti- 
mately.” 

“ If you only had n’t added the reason,” 
he said plaintively. “ Well, I must n’t be 
too grasping.” 

“ I shall always think of you as a friend 
even if I never see you again,” she con- 
tinued. “ And I suppose it is better not. 
You must never come to our court, for it 
would be so hard to be ceremonious and 
proper, when I should be longing to ask 
you if you remembered my experiments 
in cooking, and all the other dear delight- 
ful things.” 

“Are you sarcastic, Princess?” de- 
manded Delorme. 


In the Mountains . 


H3 


“ Sarcastic ? Why, no. I do find it 
delightful in spite of the drawbacks in the 
shape of rough-dried clothes and going 
without a great many of the necessaries. 
It is the sense of freedom that makes it so 
exhilarating to me. It is the first time in 
my life that I have ever felt free to be 
myself, and I find that myself is a gypsy. 
I should like to live in a tent eight 
months of the year at least.” 

“You would look well in a red ker- 
chief,” Delorme remarked reflectively. 

“ Still, it is high time it was over,” she 
continued; “and just as soon as you are 
well enough, we will start, and when we 
get out of the forest, Louison and I will 
either shoot you and make our escape 
over your dead body, or we will get away 
by stratagem.” 

“Why don’t you take me home with 
you as your prisoner ? ” Delorme sug- 
gested. The Princess’s eyes lit up. 

“ Why, we might,” she exclaimed. “ I 
had n’t thought of it before. What a turn- 
ing of tables that would be.” 

“ I should be a willing captive,” he said. 


1 44 


The Broken Ring . 


“ Then I don’t believe I want you,” she 
replied. “ No, Captain Delorme, I will 
be magnanimous. You shall have your 
freedom.” 


CHAPTER VIII. 


PEACE IS DECLARED. 

T HE next day Delorme felt so much 
stronger that he went out of their 
retreat on a little tour of inspec- 
tion, to see if the roads were safe. He 
was gone a couple of hours and came back 
with a loaf of bread under his left arm. 

“ Some friends of mine live not so very 
far from here, a wood-chopper and his 
family,” he explained. “ They often used 
to supply me with provisions when I came 
here on hunting trips last year. They 
have agreed to put a basket of things at 
a place a little way down the trail, and 
Louison shall go for them. I don’t want 
them to find out about this place, so I 
would n’t have them come any nearer,” 
he added. 

“ How did you ever discover it your- 
145 


146 The Broken Ring. 

self ? ” asked the Princess. “ I have been 
meaning to ask you ever since we came.” 

“ It was just by accident, when I was 
out shooting one day. A rabbit ran in 
here and I followed it. The entrance 
was all choked up with rubbish, but I 
cleared it out. You see nobody would 
ever suspect it was here, as the rocks go 
up perpendicularly and look like a solid 
mass.” 

“ How about the roads ?” she asked. 

“ I think we had better wait a few days. 
My old wood-chopper says there are a 
great many soldiers about.” The Prin- 
cess did not notice it at the time, but 
afterwards she remembered that he did 
not look at her as he made this remark. 

The next morning Delorme conducted 
Louison out of their retreat and told her 
just where she would find the basket. It 
was in a place she could not miss. He 
also gave her strict injunctions not to say 
anything about her companions or their 
place of refuge if she should happen to 
meet any one. 

She ought to have been back within 


Peace is Declared . 


147 


half an hour, but an hour, two hours, 
passed and no Louison. Raoul made 
several excursions, each a little longer 
than the last, but could find no trace of 
her, although he finally went to the place 
where the basket was to have been left. 
It was gone. Next he went to the wood- 
chopper’s hut and found out that it had 
been left as directed. 

“ There is nothing for us to do but to 
wait and see if she does n’t turn up,” he 
said to the Princess when he came back 
the last time. 

“ I shall stay until dark and then I shall 
go myself if she does n’t return,” she an- 
swered decidedly. “ I shall get your wood- 
chopper to show me the way. We can’t 
be so far from the boundary line now, 
and I do not choose to stay here without 
Louison.” 

“ Don’t you trust me ?” he asked in a 
hurt tone. 

“ Yes, implicitly ; but, all the same, I 
do not choose to stay. I do not like the 
idea of it.” 

“ Ah, Princess, you are romantic only 


148 


The Broken Ring . 


in theory,” he remonstrated. She did not 
answer, and he continued : “At all events, 
there is no use being anxious over what 
can’t be helped. Let us have a happy day 
since it is to be our last.” 

“ Don’t talk about last things ; it gives 
me the blues,” she entreated. “ I am not 
going to worry about Louison. Nothing 
could possibly happen to her. She has 
probably been taken off by some soldiers 
because she refused to give an account of 
herself. But what are you going to do to 
make your day a happy one ? ” 

“ I should n’t have to do anything but 
just exist. Still, as it happens, I am going 
to lie down on those pine needles where 
the sun strikes them and put my head in 
the shade of the tree, and you are coming 
to sit beside me with your knitting. I 
love to see you knit ; it looks so domestic 
and makes me forget a thing or two ; and, 
besides, you ’ve got to finish that stock- 
ing before we go. You know you prom- 
ised I should have it.” 

“ One stocking, very badly made, will 
be so useful.” 


Peace is Declared . 149 

“ It is better than none. Besides, I can 
use it as a muffler. It would go finely 
with my full-dress uniform. Or it would 
do as an antimacassar or a pen-wiper or a 
teakettle-holder or' a sash. In fact, I can- 
not think of any use to which a stocking 
might not be put.” 

“ You could n’t cook in it,” the Princess 
objected. 

“ No ; but you might strain things 
through it,” and then they both laughed 
at the nonsense they were talking. 

u It is strange,” he continued when they 
had established themselves in the place he 
had chosen, “ It is strange how much 
nicer it makes it to have Louison gone. 
Don’t you think so ? ” he asked, as Lenore 
did not answer. 

“ Suppose I said I did n’t ?” 

“ I should n’t believe you. Nobody 
could like to have that automaton around. 
She gives me the creeps. But you really 
don’t, do you, Princess?” 

"‘My dear Captain Delorme, I have 
learned a thing or two since I have been 
here, and one is not to make remarks to 


150 The Broken Ring . 

you that you won’t like. You always 
make me pay for it later. If you can’t 
think of any other way, you do the heavy 
pathetic and find out that your arm is 
hurting you until I have to be twice as 
kind and sympathetic as I want to be. 
Oh, I know it is all my fault! I have 
spoiled you dreadfully. You were rather 
inclined to do the Spartan act at first.” 
Raoul laughed heartily. 

“ How you do see through me ! ” he ex- 
claimed. “Your ministers won’t have an 
easy time with you, Princess. The next 
Duchess is going to have things her own 
way.” 

“It will be a great bother,” she re- 
marked thoughtfully. “ I hate business 
and diplomacy and all that sort of thing. 
It seems such a waste of time when you 
might be reading novels, or lying flat on 
the ground, looking up at the sky through 
the branches of a tree. Don’t tell,” she 
went on confidentially, “ but there are 
several little retired corners in the park at 
home where I do that very thing.” 

“ But you get tired of doing even such 


Peace is Declared. 1 5 1 

delightful things when you have n’t any 
duties,” Delorme remonstrated. 

“ Not if you are a princess and have 
such a large part of your time taken up 
with stupid forms and ceremonies. Be- 
sides, I drive and ride, and read other 
things beside novels. But, Captain De- 
lorme,” she broke off, “ I don’t think it is 
fair. I have told you almost everything 
there is to tell about myself, and you have 
told me nothing about you.” He turned 
over on his side so that he faced her, 
moved his head out of the sun, which had 
just reached it, and asked : 

“What is it you want to know, Prin- 
cess ? ” 

“ A little of everything, if it is n’t dis- 
agreeable to you.” 

“ Oh ! no, not in the least, but there 
is n’t much to tell. My parents died when 
I was so young that it is not natural for 
me to talk about them, for I hardly re- 
member them. Let me see. My father 
was a man with a great quantity of this 
world’s goods, more clever than scrupu- 
lous, I regret to say ; and when he died, 


152 The Broken Ring . 

a cousin of his stepped forward and 
claimed these goods as his right. Every- 
body had always known that he ought to 
have had them, but my father was power- 
ful and had a great deal of influence ; and 
when he disputed the succession — inheri- 
tance, I mean, he had the Archbishop and 
a great many others to back him up. 
Well, my fathers cousin won his suit and 
left me without where to lay my head ; 
for my cousin hated me for being my 
father’s son. Besides, he had a son, and 
he was afraid of my getting the decision 
reversed some day. What might have 
become of me, I cannot tell, if an old 
friend of my mother’s had not adopted 
me. He took me to England and had 
me educated there and let me travel and 
do anything I wanted to. Then we lived 
in Paris for several years, and when I was 
tired of being idle, he got me a commis- 
sion in the Konigreich army. That is all, 
Princess, not a very interesting story, 
is it?” 

“ Not as you tell it ; but I have no 
doubt it was very much so in reality. 


Peace is Declared ' 


*53 


You left out all the details and those are 
what make things interesting. But this 
property, was it money or. land?” 

“ Both.” 

“ Are you never going to get any of it ? ” 

“ Perhaps I shall. It has begun to look 
like it lately. My cousin’s son is very 
dissipated and is rapidly killing himself, 
and I am the next heir.” 

“ Who is your cousin ? Has he a title ? 
Is he a count or a baron ? ” 

“ He is neither. His name is the same 
as mine.” 

“ That ’s too bad,” she exclaimed. “ I 
always thought you seemed like a man of 
high rank.” 

“You can’t always tell,” Delorme re- 
plied with a laugh. “ Is there anything 
else I can tell Your Highness? My insig- 
nificant self feels honored at your inter- 
est.” The Princess picked up a twig as 
if she were about to throw it at him ; but 
dropped it immediately, horrified at having 
even thought of doing such a familiar 
thing. It was certainly time they left 
their retreat. Delorme looked at her with 


154 


The Broken Ring . 


a glance of amused comprehension on his 
face. He had a provoking little way of 
divining impulses that never crystallized 
into actions. 

“ I don’t even know your Christian 
name,” she said abruptly to divert his at- 
tention. 

“ Are you thinking of calling me by it ? ” 
he demanded. She gave him a look of 
scorn, and he continued. “You don’t? 
Why, I know yours perfectly. Lenore, it 
is a beautiful name.” 

“It is a most uncommon one,” she 
replied. “ I never knew of but one other 
person who had it.” 

“ There was the Queen of Konigreich, 
of course ; and look here,” said Delorme 
as, with some difficulty, he unfastened a 
locket from his watch chain and handed 
it to the Princess. 

“Am I to open it?” she asked as she 
took it. 

“ If you please. I can’t do it with one 
hand.” It was an old-fashioned locket of 
chased gold, and opened with some little 
difficulty. Within was a picture of a 


Peace is Declared. 155 

beautiful young woman with deep dark 
eyes. Her hair was rather quaintly 
dressed and her shoulders were framed in 
a cloud of floating gauze. Below on the 
rim of the locket was engraved the one 
word “ Lenore.” 

“ Oh ! ” exclaimed the Princess ; then 
asked a second later, “ Then it was not I 
you meant that time you were out of your 
head ? ” Delorme only smiled for answer, 
and stretched out his hand for the locket ; 
but the Princess refused to give it up. 

“Not till you tell me who she is,” she 
declared. 

“ You will have to keep it then,” he re- 
plied, putting his watch back in his pocket. 
“ Keep it till I ask you for it.” 

“ Then it is not so very dear to you ? ” 
she asked. 

“ On the contrary, it is my most 
precious possession except one ; still, I 
should like to have you take care of it for 
me, Princess.” 

“Very well,” she replied absent-mind- 
edly, sticking it into the bodice of her 
peasant’s gown. 


156 The Broken Ring . 

'‘You have n’t told me how you got 
your name,” Delorme went on presently. 

“ I thought everybody knew. I was 
named after your Queen Lenore. She was 
my godmother ; but I was such a little 
girl when she died that I don’t remember 
her at all. I have always heard that she 
was a remarkable woman. I have heard 
my father tell stories of her — But what is 
the matter ? You look so strangely,” she 
broke off abruptly.” 

“ Only a twinge of pain. There, it is 
gone now. Go on, Princess. Are there 
any more questions you want to ask 
me ? ” 

“ I asked you one and you did not 
answer it.” 

“ My Christian name, you mean ? It is 
Raoul. I am surprised you did n’t know. 
You surely have n’t been thinking of me 
as Captain Delorme all this time ? ” 

“ I never think of people by their names 
at all,” she answered. “ People in novels 
are always saying, ‘ I always think of you 
as Mary or John,’ so I suppose some 
people do do it, but I never do.” 


Peace is Declared. 


157 


4 ‘ I suppose they mean that their way of 
thinking of their friend is of the degree of 
intimacy at which you call people by their 
Christian names. Yet how do you account 
for the fact that people in excitement or 
delirium, let us say, use names that they 
would never dare to use ordinarily ? ” 

"‘Then it was n’t that other Lenore ?” 
demanded the Princess. Raoul only 
smiled provokingly, and instead of an- 
swering, asked if they were n’t going to 
have anything to eat that day ? He, for 
one, was starved. 

u There is very little to have,” replied 
Lenore. “ But you can have what there 
is, — one bottle of beer, some very stale 
biscuits, and a little cheese, besides the 
rest of the bread you brought.” 

“ And you scorn those delicacies ? My 

dear girl ” He interrupted himself 

abruptly, and said most humbly : “ I beg 
your pardon, Princess. I forgot myself.” 

“ Never mind,” she said graciously. 
“Can you really make something good 
out of those things?” Under his direc- 
tions, she cut up the cheese into the small- 


158 The Broken Ring . 

est possible pieces, spread it evenly on the 
biscuits, then toasted them and her cheeks 
at the same time over some live coals 
which Delorme resurrected from under 
the ashes of their fire. 

“ Now tell the truth, did you ever taste 
anything nicer ? ” he asked when their 
feast was spread out on a flat rock that 
they used for a table. 

“Never!” she answered emphatically. 
“ Dear me, how hungry I am. I should 
be very glad of the crumbs that fall from 
my father’s table, and I spend half my 
time thinking about things to eat. I ’ll 
eat them out of house and home when I 
get back.” 

“ And that will be to-morrow,” said 
Raoul. “You don’t seem to realize how 
soon your captivity will be over, Princess.” 

“ I don’t want to,” she answered soberly. 
“It is probably the one taste of freedom 
I shall ever have, and I don’t want it to 
come to an end too quickly.” Her com- 
panion sighed heavily and lost himself in 
a fit of abstraction. They neither of 
them felt very happy as the afternoon 


Peace is Declared, 159 

wore away without Louison and the hour 
for parting came nearer and nearer. 

“ Why not wait till to-morrow,” Delorme 
s ugg es ted once. “ Nobody will ever know, 
and you know you don’t mind me.” 

“ No, indeed,” she answered decidedly. 
“ I will wait till twilight and not a second 
later. What are you going to do ?” He 
stared at her. 

“ Did you actually think I was going 
to let you go home alone, Princess?” 

“ But there might be danger for you.” 

“ I ’ll risk it,” he answered, with a laugh 
that she did not understand. 

When the shadows grew longer, Le- 
nore took the needles out of her finished 
stocking, handed it to Raoul without a 
word, and, going over to the cave, brought 
out the last bottle of wine and a loaf of 
bread and set them on the rock. 

“Supper is ready,” she said, speaking 
for the first time. 

“It seems like a sacrament,” Delorme 
said soberly, and, lifting his glass and look- 
ing her straight in the eyes, he drank to 
her silently. 


i6o 


The Broken Ring. 


“ Ah, Princess,” he said, “ if you knew 
what these days have been to me ! ” 

“ I think you had better not tell me,” 
she answered in a low voice, without 
looking at him ; and getting up, she went 
into the cave again. When she came out, 
a moment later, she had a small bundle 
in her hand. 

“ I am ready,” she said quietly. Raoul 
rose to his feet without a word, and led 
the way through the curving passage with 
its jock walls, through the dense thicket 
in front of it, out into the world beyond. 
It was not yet dark and there was a little 
new moon overhead. They walked down 



in the gathering darkness. Once 


the Princess stumbled over a root, and he 
reached out and took her right hand in 
his left one. 

“ I know every foot of the way,” he 
said ; then went on as she tried to draw 
it away: “What does it matter? It is 
the last time. Forget for once that you 
are a princess as well as a woman.” 

At last they came into the highway 
and turned their faces to the east. In 


Peace is Declared. 1 6 1 

about an hour they reached the frontier ; 
and there, in front of the military station 
on the other side of the line, to Lenore’s 
astonishment, they saw a group of blue- 
coated soldiers talking with a group of red 
ones. They were standing in a broad 
band of light from an open door. 

“ What do you suppose it means ? ” she 
demanded of Delorme, whom she had 
tried in vain to persuade to leave her. 

“ Perhaps peace has been declared,” he 
replied. His voice sounded unnatural to 
her, and just at that moment a light was 
flashed full on their faces, and she saw an 
expression on his that roused her suspi- 
cions. They made a pretty picture, 
standing there with the wide stream of 
light falling full on them, she in her peas- 
ant’s gown, and he in his blue uniform, 
with one empty sleeve and an arm in a 
sling. Still, their personal appearance 
was the last thing in the world that either 
of them was thinking of at that moment. 

"You knew?” she demanded in alow 
voice, taking no notice of the sentry’s 
challenge. 


162 


The Broken Ring. 


“ Yes, I knew,” he answered defiantly, 
holding up his head, and looking her 
straight in the eyes. 

‘‘When did it happen ?” 

“ Four days ago.” 

“ And how long have you known ? ” 

“ Since yesterday.” 

“Speak or I’ll shoot!” came a voice 
from the sentry-box. The soldiers had 
ridden up, and they all heard her answer : 

“ It is I, Lenore, your Princess.” A 
deafening shout went up from both red- 
coats and bluecoats, and under cover of 
the confusion, Delorme disappeared in the 
darkness. It was thus that the parting 
took place which both had dreaded so 
much. 

Several officers came running out of the 
houses around, and, rushing up to Lenore, 
seized her hand and kissed it, while they 
besieged her with questions. 

“We had begun to think Your High- 
ness must be dead,” said the Colonel in 
charge of the post. “We lost all track 
after Your Highness left the mill.” 

“ I was taken off in the mountains just 


Peace is Declared. 163 

after the mill was attacked, and kept 
there, although I was treated with the 
utmost consideration. My maid was with 
me until this morning, when they let her 
go, and to-day I was set free too. One of 
the Konigreich soldiers showed me the 
way here. He seems to have disappeared. 
I should have liked to give him some- 
thing,” the Princess explained, making 
use of a little duplicity. 

“ I suppose he was afraid of conse- 
quences,” said the Colonel. “ The Duke 
is most indignant as well as beside him- 
self with anxiety. You may be sure they 
will be properly punished. And now I 
will send for a carriage for Your High- 
ness, and escort you to the palace imme- 
diately. I am sorry we have no clothes 
for Your Highness,” he added, with a 
glance at her costume. 

“ This will do very well,” she answered 
indifferently. “ There will be no one to 
see me.” 

In a few minutes she was driving rapid- 
ly towards the Capital, the Colonel in the 
seat opposite her. He was evidently full 


164 The Broken Ring. 

of curiosity about her adventures, so she 
pretended to go to sleep. It was late 
when she alighted in the courtyard of the 
Palace, but the news spread like wildfire 
over the building, and in an incredibly 
short space of time the corridors were 
crowded with attendants and lords and 
ladies-in-waiting, anxious to welcome the 
Princess, and to learn what could have 
detained her four days after peace was 
declared. The Duke was just about to 
get into bed; but he could not wait till 
Lenore came to him, but rushed out of 
his apartments clad in dressing-gown and 
slippers, divided between his joy at hav- 
ing her back again uninjured and indigna- 
tion against the ruffians who had detained 
her. His anger gave her a valuable sug- 
gestion. She had been much disturbed 
as to how she was to evade the cross- 
questioning that was sure to await her 
without arousing suspicions ; but now she 
said as soon as the Duke was composed 
enough to listen to her : 

“Father, I have had nothing but kind- 
ness and consideration from these people, 


Peace is Declared. 165 

and if it means that they are to be pun- 
ished, I won’t tell a thing for fear you will 
discover who they are ” ; and from this 
position she refused to move, in spite of 
commands and entreaties. She even took 
advantage of his delight to obtain from 
him a promise that no further complaint 
should be made to the King of Konig- 
reich, but that the matter should be 
allowed to drop. One of the terms of 
the treaty had been, she discovered, 
the restoration of the Princess in good 
health, and when the time agreed 
upon had passed and she had not ap- 
peared, the Duke had sent an embassy 
to Konigreich, demanding the reason 
for the delay in any but polite words. 
This had been followed by another that 
very day. 

Lenore did not know this, but General 
Malakoff had been at his wits’ end. He 
had pledged his word to the King for the 
reappearance of the Princess when wanted, 
knowing that she was safe somewhere 
under Delorme’s care. As the days went 
by, and he could get no news of either of 


The Broken Ring . 


1 66 

them, he became very nervous. The peace 
was signed, a measure he was most anxious 
for for reasons of his own, and, within a 
short time, was followed by messengers 
from the Duke, demanding his daughter, 
and threatening to renew hostilities im- 
mediately. Malakoff had used all the 
diplomatic arts he knew to get a moment’s 
delay while he scoured the country ; and 
at the time of the Princess’s arrival at the 
palace, he was lying wide-awake, fully 
dressed, on his narrow soldier’s bed, 
cursing Delorme and himself, and trying 
in vain to think of some possible place 
where they might be hiding. It showed 
his confidence in Delorme, that he never 
for one moment believed that he had left 
the country with the Princess. If for no 
other reason, he would never put his coun- 
try in such a predicament. 

It was getting light when he heard the 
clatter of hoofs in the paved yard outside, 
and in a minute some one was demanding 
admittance at his door. 

“ Come in,” called the General, jumping 
to his feet and recognizing immediately, in 


Peace is Declared, 


167 


spite of the faint light, the tall blue-coated 
figure that stood in the doorway with an 
arm in a sling. 

“ Where is the Princess ? ” he demanded 
eagerly, without any preliminaries. 

“ Safe in her fathers palace by this 
time,” Raoul answered calmly. The Gen- 
eral sank back on his bed. 

“Thank Heaven!” he exclaimed fer- 
vently ; and then he began to scold the 
young man and to ask him twenty ques- 
tions all in the same breath, in a manner 
most unlike his usual impassive one. The 
General had seldom been so disturbed 
about anything in his life before. 

“And do you mean to say you never 
told her ? ” he asked at last when Raoul 
had finished his story, having by this time 
forgotten his anger in his delight at having 
his boy back again. 

“ I never even hinted at it,” Raoul 
answered. “You don’t really know her, 
General. It would have done no good — 
probably harm. Everything has to be 
open and above-board with the Princess 
Lenore. Besides, I should have had to 


The Broken Ring . 


1 68 

tell her who I was to make it seem credi- 
ble.” The General sighed. 

“How times have changed!” he ex- 
claimed. “ Any man who behaved as you 
did would, in my young days, have been 
called a milksop ; but — damn it, Raoul — 
no man could call you that.” His com- 
panion only laughed. 

“ I ’m dead beat,” he said wearily. “ Is 
there a bed I can have, General ? It seems 
years since I slept in one. And I ’ll shoot 
any man that wakes me up, if it be the 
Commander-in-chief himself.” 

“ All right,” said the General. “ You 
can have Courtenay’s room. He is at 
Friedberg.” 

The Princess spent the next few days 
eating and sleeping. After that she be- 
gan to come to life a little. Louison had 
turned up the day after her own arrival. 
She had met a party of Konigreich 
soldiers a little way down the trail ; and 
because of her refusal to give an account 
of herself, together with the discrepancy 
between her dress and her dialect, she had 
been taken to the military post at Fried- 


Peace is Declared, 169 

berg, and thence, a day later, to head- 
quarters, where Captain Delorme had 
identified her, and General Malakoff had 
sent her home immediately with an escort 
and many apologies. 

The Duke was extremely annoyed at 
his daughter’s refusal to give any details 
of her captivity ; but, as physical compul- 
sion was out of fashion, he had to submit. 
The reason she gave for refusing seemed 
so plausible that only one or two of the 
most inveterate of the gossips around the 
court found anything suspicious about it ; 
and even these had whispered about it 
only for a short time, when an event took 
place that put everything else out of their 
minds. The Crown Prince of Konigreich 
died very suddenly. Heart-failure, the 
court physicians called it, though the 
world at large gave it a different name. 
Now the Crown Prince was the only child 
and the King was very feeble. Who was 
to succeed him ? This question was an- 
swered a week after the funeral by the 
official announcement that Prince Karl, 
first cousin once removed of the King, 


170 


The Broken Ring. 


had arrived from Paris, where he had 
been living, had been received at the 
palace and publicly recognized as the 
heir presumptive to the throne. This 
important event was followed in a short 
time, as one of the court ladies took great 
credit to herself for having predicted, by 
an embassy from the King to beg the 
hand of the Princess Lenore for Prince 
Karl, his cousin and heir. 


CHAPTER IX. 


ROYAL INTERVIEWS. 

T WO months after her return, the 
Princess Lenore was sitting by the 
window of her private sitting-room, 
her hands in her lap, apparently doing 
nothing but look out of the window, a 
dreamy expression, half sad, half happy, 
on her face. She sat there so long that 
she lost track of time and place, and was 
considerably startled when a page threw 
open the door and announced : 

“The Duke, Your Highness.” Lenore 
rose quickly to her feet. 

“This is very surprising,” she said. 

“ I wanted a little talk with you,” her 
father began nervously. 

“You should have sent for me,” said 
the Princess. 

“ I thought I would come here ; it is 


I 7 2 


The Broken Ring . 


pleasant, and we are more likely to be un- 
disturbed.” There was no denying it. 
The Duke was very nervous. He was al- 
ways a little afraid of this daughter of his, 
but never so much as when she set her 
will in opposition to his, as was the case 
in regard to the subject of his visit. He 
looked around for a diversion and saw a 
small gold object, apparently a locket, at his 
feet. He stooped and picked it up. The 
Princess, whose eyes had strayed out of 
the window again, turned them in time to 
see him do it. 

“ My locket. Let me have it, please, 
Father,” she exclaimed. He started to 
give it to her, but it opened in his hand 
and disclosed the face at which she had 
been looking a moment before. 

“Why, where did you get this?” he 
demanded. “ I did n’t know we had a pic- 
ture of her.” 

“ Who is it ? ” asked Lenore, in her 
turn, as eagerly as the Duke. 

“ Don’t you know ? ” 

“I haven’t the remotest idea, except 
that her name is Lenore.” 


Royal Interviews. 173 

“ It is your godmother, Queen Lenore 
of Konigreich, and a splendid likeness. 
She looked just like that the first time I 
saw her. She was only a poor little prin- 
cess then. If only she had n’t married 
that brute of a fellow,” and the Duke 
gave a sigh. 

“ Are you sure ? ” asked the Princess. 
Her father stared at her. 

“ Of course I am. How strangely you 
asked that, Lenore. Where did you get 
it ? ” he demanded suspiciously. 

“ It was given me. I would rather not 
say by whom, now that I know of whom 
it is a likeness. I had n’t an idea of it.” 
She looked him straight in the eye, and 
the Duke did not have the courage to 
persevere in his inquiries, but said in- 
stead : 

“ I should think you might have 
guessed. Lenore is such an unusual 
name.” 

“ I might have,” she answered slowly. 
“ But, strange to say, it never occurred to 
me.” 

“ I can’t imagine where it came from, 


174 


The Broken Ring . 


if it was any one around the palace who 
gave it to you,” the Duke went on. “ It 
could n’t have been among your mother’s 
things. She was not any too fond of 
Lenore, and there would have been no 
reason for her having so beautiful a pic- 
ture of her. Besides, I should have known 
about it. Let me have it, Lenore. You 
do not care for it.” 

“ Indeed I do. It is a beautiful picture, 
as you say, and I like having her name. 
No, Father, it is mine.” 

This little episode had aroused so many 
memories in the Duke that it made him 
forget his nervousness to such an extent 
that he plunged immediately into the sub- 
ject that had brought him to. his daughter’s 
apartments, instead of leading up to it by 
degrees. 

“ Prince Karl is her son, you know,” he 
said abruptly. Lenore’s face took on a 
hard, stony expression. 

“You are not going to begin on that 
again ?” she demanded impatiently. 

“ You must come to reason,” her father 
replied. “It is the only thing to be done 


Royal Interviews . 


*75 


if we are to secure permanent peace, and 
another war would ruin us. Our treasury 
is exhausted now, and the soldiers are de- 
manding their pay. If you marry the 
Prince, the question of Mitlachen is settled 
at once without any loss of dignity on 
either side, and Konigreich will remit the 
indemnity, which will give plenty of money 
for everything/’ 

“ It seems to me that I have heard this 
once or twice before,” the Princess replied 
indifferently, looking out of the window 
again, and evidently much absorbed in 
something foreign to the subject they 
were discussing. The Duke lost his 
temper. 

“You are a selfish, heartless girl,” he 
exclaimed. 

“ Father,” Lenore said reprovingly, and 
her voice calmed him, as it always did. 

“ There is an especial reason why this 
marriage is strictly appropriate.” he went 
on more quietly. “ There are considera- 
tions on account of which I have not 
cared to tell you of it before, but if I 
thought it would weigh with you ” 


1 76 The Broken Ring . 

he paused and the Princess interrupted 
him : 

“ It is no use, Father. If you proved 
to me conclusively that this marriage was 
made in heaven, I should not consent. 
I realize perfectly that noblesse oblige y that 
I cannot marry a man of my own choos- 
ing; but neither will I marry- one selected 
for me by ministers of state. Why can 
I not be a virgin ruler, like Elizabeth ? 
Oh, do let us stop this eternal discussion 
that leads nowhere ! Once for all, I will 
not marry a man to order.” 

“ If you would only see him,” protested 
the Duke. Lenore shook her head, and 
the Duke, figuratively speaking, threw up 
the sponge and left the arena. It was 
what he had to do eventually in every 
one of his encounters with his daughter. 
He had known perfectly well what the 
result would be before he entered the 
room ; but his advisers had insisted on 
one more attempt. 

He had had one argument, known only 
to himself, that he had kept as a last re- 
source ; but he had concluded the inter- 


Royal Interviews . 


177 


view without using it, though he had once 
started to do so. He congratulated him- 
self on this reserve when he returned to 
his own apartments. He had no confi- 
dence that anything in heaven or earth 
would move Lenore when she had once 
made up her mind, and the explanation 
that would have been necessary would not 
have shown him up in a favorable light. 
He could imagine Lenore demanding 
scornfully why he had not told her when 
he was proposing other alliances to her, 
and if he really had intended to keep it 
secret, supposing events had not turned 
out exactly as they had ; and the Duke 
was guiltily conscious that he had intended 
to do that very thing. 

In the meanwhile, Delorme’s life had 
been as eventful as the Princess’s had been 
quiet. At the close of the war the head- 
quarters of the army had been moved 
back to the capital, and it was here that 
he was living, in General Malakoff’s 
house. His arm had healed rapidly, and 
as soon as he could discard his sling, 
the General had put him on his own 


1 78 


The Broken Ring. 


personal staff, a position that he had 
held before being placed in charge of 
the Princess. 

One night after dinner he had left his 
companions and was wandering around 
the garden in the twilight, smoking a 
cigarette, and thinking some thoughts 
that evidently pleased him, judging by 
the smile on his face, when one of his 
brother officers came hurrying towards 
him with the news that the General 
wanted to see him immediately. De- 
lorme’s spirit was so far away from his 
body that it took him a second or two be- 
fore he realized what was being said to 
him. He found General Malakoff in his 
private office, impatiently walking up and 
down. 

“ Oh, there you are,” he exclaimed as 
Raoul entered. “ Shut the door. I have 
a piece of news for you. The Crown 
Prince is dead.” Delorme turned pale. 

“ Really ? ” he exclaimed. 

‘‘Yes ; he died an hour ago. I just re- 
ceived word by a special messenger. I 
knew he had been off on another spree 


Royal Interviews . 


179 


and was suffering from the consequences. 
Now we shall have to make up our minds 
how to act.” 

“There will be no need to take any 
steps until after the funeral,” Delorme 
suggested. 

“ Probably not ; still it is just as well to 
be prepared. 1 1 is the opportunity we have 
waited for all these years, my boy,” and 
he laid his hand on Delorme’s shoulder. 

“ Poor fellow,” remarked the latter. “ I 
don’t suppose he was to blame, if we knew 
the truth of the matter. There was weak- 
ness in every line of his face, and I don’t 
suppose he was ever taught to control him- 
self. I tell you what, General, I am con- 
vinced that it was a very fortunate thing 
for me that I have had to experience the 
uses of adversity. I don’t believe one 
man in a million can make a successful 
fight against the temptations of being first, 
when it is not his own merits that have 
made him so.” 

“ I know one man who could have,” said 
the General, suggestively. 

“ I am not so sure of that. I don’t think 


180 The Broken Ring. 

wine would have been the danger in my 
case, but women would have been ; and 
you know you have always said I was 
rather too fond of having my own way, 
even in my present circumstances.” 

“ Rather,” exclaimed the General ; then 
went on : “ Well, think it over. I must 
be going to the palace. I wonder how 
the King is taking it. If he had another 
son, I fancy it would be a relief to him. 
Still, his attitude will have to regulate 
ours. I will send for you when I get 
back.” 

The Crown Prince was buried with as 
much pomp and ceremony as if his had 
been the most desirable head for a kingly 
crown to rest on. There was no real 
grief, however ; for his mother was dead, 
and his excesses had long ago worn out 
his father’s patience. The King was a 
delicate, ascetic man, with little sympathy 
for the sins and follies of youth, — a stu- 
dent rather than a man of the world. The 
evening after the funeral, he was sitting 
in his library in a swing chair in front of 
a table, a large folio in front of him, which 


Royal Interviews . 1 8 1 

he was not reading, when a page entered 
and announced General Malakoff. 

“ Show him in,” said the King, “ and 
see that we are not interrupted for any 
cause whatsoever.” He swung slowly 
around as the door opened to admit the 
General, followed by a young man in the 
uniform of an officer of his staff. They both 
bowed low, and the General waited until 
the page had withdrawn before he said : 

“ Here is the Prince, Your Majesty.” 

The King rose slowly and painfully 
and motioned to the young man to come 
nearer, until the light of a hanging lamp 
fell full upon him. Then he signalled to 
him to stop. 

“ You do not look in the least like your 
father,” he said at length after he had 
taken a prolonged survey of him. Then 
continued : “ General Malakoff tells me 

that you have been in my army for two 
years and have not disclosed your identity 
to a single one of my subjects. Is that so ? ” 

“It is, Your Majesty,” Raoul answered 
composedly. 

“You have not made any attempts on 


I 82 


The Broken Ring . 


the throne then. Will you honor me 
with your reasons ? ” 

Raoul flushed a little, hesitated, then 
answered quietly : 

“Your Majesty, I do not like to say 
anything that will reflect on my father ; 
but I must acknowledge, once for all, that 
I never had any doubts as to who was the 
rightful claimant to the throne.” 

“ And you did not let your ambition 
govern your beliefs ? You are a most 
remarkable young man.” The sarcasm 
in the Kings voice was irritating, and 
Raoul lost his temper. His eyes flashed. 

“ I have never set myself up as a 
model,” he was beginning, when a warn- 
ing glance from the General silenced him. 
The King looked from one to the other, 
evidently understanding the feelings of 
both, and apparently not at all displeased 
at Raoul’s flash of temper. The late 
Crown Prince could be insulted with per- 
fect safety by any one, from his father to 
the latest ballet girl to whom he gave his 
royal protection. 

“You don’t think my cousin Henry, 


Royal Interviews. 183 

your father, was in the right then ? ” he 
asked in a less ungracious manner. 

“ No, Your Majesty, I do not. I think 
he was altogether in the wrong. His claim 
had nothing to stand on except the power 
to enforce it. I have always thought so 
ever since I was old enough to know any- 
thing about the matter, and it is this con- 
sideration alone that has made me keep 
myself in the background.” 

“ Well, then, Cousin Karl, — your name 
is Karl, I believe ? ” 

“ Karl Raoul Louis, Your Majesty,” 
put in the General. The King took no 
notice, but continued : 

“ You know, I suppose, that I cannot 
prevent the throne from going to you 
when I am dead? You are certainly the 
rightful heir when I am out of the way. 
You won’t have to wait long. I have 
heard two of the three knocks. I thought 
the third had come a week ago, but it 
seems I am yet to live and to suffer. Still, 
I really do not see why I should have you 
under my eyes for the little time I have 
left to live, the son of my greatest enemy, 


184 


The Broken Ring . 


of the man who, while he pretended to be 
my friend, was secretly working against 
my interests, and who, on the death of 
our great uncle, quietly took possession 
of all that should have been mine, keeping 
me out of it all those years w T hen I might 
have enjoyed it, before disease had laid 
hold of me and turned my court into a 
hospital.” There was not a trace of ex- 
citement in the King’s voice as he said 
these words. Evidently he could no 
longer feel his wrongs, only think them. 
“That was not the worst,” he went on 
after a second’s pause. “He wronged 
me in a way of which I do not dare let 
myself think.” Sinking back into his 
seat, he gazed across the room at a 
picture on the opposite wall with his 
far-seeing eyes, evidently forgetting his 
companions and everything except the 
past that a life of suffering had made 
seem so far behind, for he was not an old 
man, except in his infirmities. Raoul 
had an impulse, and he acted on it. He 
moved forward and stood in front of the 
King’s chair with bowed head. 


Royal Interviews, 185 

“ My cousin,” he said, “ I should not 
want to stay near you if the sight of me 
were painful to you ; but you say I do 
not look like my father, and I tell you I 
am not like him. I feel his wrongs 
towards you as keenly as you can do. 
Will you not let me make atonement for 
them to you, in so far as a man can ? I 
will be a son, a good son to you. I 
will relieve you from many cares that 
your health must make you find oppres- 
sive. I will do everything in my power 
to make you feel that there is at least one 
service that my father has done you.” 
The King looked at him intently ; then 
said with more eagerness than he had 
shown at any time during the interview : 

“ You are in earnest ? You will never 
forget that I am the rightful King? You 
swear that ? ” 

“ If you are not convinced of my hon- 
esty already, no swearing will do any 
good. A villain never minds breaking an 
oath,” Raoul answered calmly. 

“ True,” the King replied shortly ; then 
went on, as if to himsejf : “ His mother 


The Broken Ring . 


1 86 

was a just, virtuous woman, why should 
he not be that rarity, an honest man ? ” 
He rose to his feet with some difficulty, 
laid one of his trembling hands on each 
of Raouls broad shoulders, then said : 
“ Karl, I believe you. I have always 
been accustomed to trust my own judg- 
ment of men, — since that one hard lesson 
taught me to know the tracks of the cloven 
hoof. Your eyes are honest and I like 
your face. You shall have the chance 
you wish. As I told you, I have not long 
to live ; but if you can make that little 
time any easier to me, I shall be glad.” 
Raoul took the trembling hands in his 
and kissed them. 

“ How strong you are and how warm- 
blooded,” the King said, almost enviously, 
as Raoul put his arm around him and 
helped him back to his chair. 

“ I have strength for myself and to 
spare,” he answered gently. 

This weak, trembling figure of the man 
whom his father had wronged so greatly, 
touched him more than he would have 
believed possible, although he had pitied 


Royal Interviews. 


187 


him for his sufferings and the disappoint- 
ment which his son’s career had been to 
him. He had admired him, too, for his 
uprightness and justice, his unwavering 
choice of things that were of good report, 
his simplicity and lack of ostentation, and, 
above all, for the keen, well-balanced in- 
tellect that, in spite of his advisers, never 
lost sight of the true welfare of his coun- 
try. He had admired him for his virtues 
and pitied him for his misfortunes, but now 
he felt a sentiment that was neither the 
one nor the other of these in his 
heart. It had never occurred to him 
that he might feel real affection for his 
cousin. 

The King looked very pale as he sank 
back into his chair, but a smile was on 
his lips. 

‘‘You may go now,” he said to Raoul, 
“ I will see you again in the morning. I 
wish to speak to General Malakoff for a 
few minutes now.” The young man 
bowed and withdrew, and the King mo- 
tioned to the General, who had re- 
treated into the . background while this 


1 88 The Broken Ring . 

conversation was going on, to come 
nearer. 

“ Is he genuine ? ” he asked anxiously. 

“ As the crown jewels,” answered the 
General. “I did not wish to tell Your 
Majesty much about him till you had 
seen him and could judge for yourself ; 
but he has been with me since his father 
died, and he has been the joy and com- 
fort of my life. He is brave and honest. 
He has only one real fault that I know 
of, a quick temper. It takes very little 
to make him flash out with things that 
had better be left unsaid, but he gets over 
it just as quickly.” He stopped, but the 
King looked up at him with a look of 
such unusual interest that he continued : 
“He never forgets an old friend, and 
never lets his personal wishes influence 
his convictions. I will not deny that be- 
fore I took service with Your Majesty, I 
tried to stir him up to a sense of what he 
had lost. He was only eighteen then ; 
but he looked into the question for him- 
self and came to the conclusion that it 
was his father who had. been the usurper, 


Royal Interviews . 189 

and he could not be moved from that 
position. I am not too proud to confess 
that he has taught me a great deal.” 

“ What are his habits ? ” asked the 
King. 

“ He has no bad ones. He cares al- 
most nothing for drinking, and women 
who are not refined and well-bred never 
influence him. He is devoted to horses 
and dogs and hunting, and is a born sol- 
dier. He is too active to care very much 
for books, but he has a vast amount of 
clear, practical common-sense. I am sure 
Your Majesty will have reason to bless 
this day for the rest of your life.” 

“ Perhaps,” the King answered slowly. 
“ I was very much drawn to him. I liked 
his simplicity and his lack of servility. I 
wish he were really my son — if he is what 
he seems. It is hard for me to believe in 
any one who owns Henry for a father,” 
he added. 

“ But there was his mother,” the Gen- 
eral interposed gently. 

“True,” remarked the King ; and then 
there was silence between them for the 


The Broken Ring . 


190 

space of five minutes, after which the 
King came back to the present again and 
dismissed his companion. 

Within a week Raoul was formally and 
publicly acknowledged heir presumptive 
to the throne of Konigreich under the 
title of Prince Karl, which, for reasons of 
state, had seemed the best one of his 
three names for him to adopt, although 
he had always been known as Prince 
Raoul in his fathers lifetime. There had 
never been a Raoul on the throne, and 
there had been three Karls, and the King 
preferred that he should be the fourth of 
that name. The King’s impressions of 
his heir continued to be favorable. In- 
deed it would have been hard for any one 
not to make friends with Raoul. He had 
a natural, easy, friendly manner that was 
very prepossessing, and. it was not long 
before he won the hearts of all around the 
court who had hearts to win. He set 
about learning his new duties immediately 
under the King’s tuition, and delighted 
him by his application and interest, as well 
as his quickness at understanding. He 


Royal Interviews . 1 9 1 

had spent so many fruitless hours with 
his son in the same employment. Raoul’s 
service under General Malakoff had made 
him familiar with everything pertaining 
to military matters, and he had always 
studied the political history of his own 
country, as well as that of others, with a 
great deal of interest, so all that was left 
to teach him was the daily routine. It was 
not long before the King realized that he 
was growing to depend more and more on 
his young cousin, and the idea did not dis- 
please him. He had never had any one 
on whom he could depend before. 

One lovely warm afternoon he was sit- 
ting in the window of his library, which 
overlooked the park, thinking what a 
comfort it was that he no longer had to 
attend to certain tedious duties of state, 
and could sit there in idleness with a com- 
fortable conscience, when he saw Raoul 
ride up the avenue between the trees with 
Balder running beside him. The King 
admired the erect soldierly carriage, and 
a thought that had been in his mind many 
times in the past few weeks came to him 


192 


The Broken Ring . 


again, and, summoning a page, he told 
him to desire that the Prince come to him 
immediately. 

The young man came in unattended, 
and, stooping down, took the King’s weak 
hand in his strong one. 

“ And how is my cousin, the King, 
to-day ? ” he asked affectionately. 

“ Fairly well,” answered the King. “ I 
am enjoying the open windows and the 
sunlight on the trees. You have been to 
ride?” . 

“Yes,” replied Raoul, seating himself 
on the window-seat. “ I was so stiff from 
sitting so long in that old council that I 
took a ride. I stopped at the General’s 
on my way back,” and here he began to 
laugh. 

“ What is it ? ” asked the King, laugh- 
ing a little too. Raoul’s laugh was very 
infectious. 

“Nothing, only he called me 'Your 
Highness.’ He has been trying to nerve 
himself up to it.” 

“ And what did you do ? ” the King 
asked in a tone of interest. 


Royal Interviews . 


T 93 


“ Oh, I just took him by the throat 
and stretched him full-length on the bil- 
liard table, and told him that was what he 
had to expect every time he did it, and if 
there did n’t happen to be a billiard table, 
the floor would do.” The King laughed 
again, an accomplishment that he had 
learned since Raoul came to him. The 
laugh was a little rusty, and had struck 
his own ear strangely at first, but he was 
getting used to it. 

“ I don’t think he will do it again,” he 
said ; then went on : “I have been think- 
ing of you as I sat here this afternoon, 
Raoul.” 

“ Yes ? ” answered Raoul, who was Karl 
only in public. 

“ I was thinking it was time you got 
married. I should like to see you with 
an heir before I die.” 

“ Have you selected the lady?” asked 
the Prince. 

“ I was thinking of the Princess Helena.” 
Raoul shook his head. “ Why not ? ” the 
King demanded. “ What do you object 
to in her ? ” 


194 


The Broken Ring. 


11 Do you have to go so far from 
home ? ” Raoul inquired suggestively. A 
gleam of comprehension came into the 
Kings face as he said : 

“ Oh, you mean Lenore. Are you 
thinking of her ?” 

“ Indeed, I think of nothing else, night 
and day,” returned the Prince. 

“ Have you ever seen her ? ” demanded 
the King. 

“Have I?” exclaimed Raoul. He 
paused for a second, then went on quietly : 
“ There is an old mill in the mountains a 
few miles this side of the frontier, where 
a certain Princess was imprisoned once 
for over a month, and her jailer was a 
certain Captain Delorme, of whom you 
may have heard.” 

“ Oh !” exclaimed the King in amaze- 
ment. “ I have n’t heard a word of this. 
It was Malakoff’s doing, I suppose.” 

“ It was, God bless him,” and Raoul 
bowed his head reverently. The King 
laughed softly to himself as he asked : 

“ And she ? ” 

“ She is a woman who never forgets 


Royal Interviews . 


1 95 


that she is a princess/’ was the reply. 
“ Still, I am not afraid,” and he straight- 
ened himself up with a pride that became 
him. 

“ She did not suspect who you were 
then ? ” 

“ Indeed, she did not, and she shall not 
do so until she forgets for a minute that 
she is a Princess. It will be a pleasant 
thought to us both all our lives. Besides, 
why should I lose the pleasure of winning 
a wife for myself ? I could n’t do any- 
thing then,” he went on. “ It did not 
seem the right thing ; but now that she is 

in her father’s palace ” He paused 

abruptly. 

“ But how are you going to see her ? ” 
asked the King, evidently intensely in- 
terested in this little romance. 

“ That is my secret,” said the Prince, 
and he could not be persuaded to reveal 
any more. 

“ Still, it would not do any harm to de- 
mand her hand formally for Prince Karl,” 
he went on a little later. “ It is on this 
very account that the General and I have 


196 The Broken Ring . 

been so careful not to let Captain De- 
lorme’s identity with that person get out. 
He has removed all my old comrades and 
soldiers to Friedberg and intends to keep 
them there until this affair is settled. 
They ’ll wonder why they are kept so 
short of leave,” and Raoul laughed a little 
to himself. “ I have been anxious to tell 
Your Majesty this,” he said finally, “for 
I wanted to get a little leave of absence 
myself.” 

“ All you like, my dear boy,” replied 
the King. “ And now if you will help 
me to the couch, I will take a little nap 
before it is time to dress for dinner. 
May luck go with you ! ” he added, hold- 
ing the young man’s hand with a kindly 
expression in his eyes when he had been 
comfortably settled among the cushions. 


CHAPTER X. 


WHAT THE PARROT SAID. 

T HE afternoon following this conver- 
sation, the Princess Lenore was 
sitting in the park that lay to the 
west of her fathers palace. A book was 
in her lap, but she was not reading. It 
had been a glorious sunshiny day, too 
warm for any greater exertion than just 
existing, and her thoughts had been 
wandering as usual back to her stay in 
the mountains, whose tops, surrounded 
by a haze of deepest violet, she could see 
through a gap in the trees in front of her, 
lying peacefully in the level rays of the 
late afternoon sun. She had just re- 
minded herself that if it were freedom 
only she longed for so intensely, she had 
it that moment when there was not an 
attendant within a quarter of a mile and 

197 


198 The Broken Ring. 

the dinner hour was still a long distance 
off. To be sure, there were guards on 
the outside of the park walls, but she 
could neither see nor hear them. “ Still 
it is only the semblance, not the reality,” 
she was saying to herself, when the crack- 
ling of twigs made her look up and she 
saw the man who had been in her thoughts 
coming over the grass and bracken towards 
her. 

“ Captain Delorme !” she exclaimed, 
jumping to her feet in astonishment. 

“ Well, Princess,” he replied in the 
easy, friendly little way she remembered 
so well. Nobody else had ever used it 
toward her. 

“ How did you get in ? ” she demanded. 

“ Are n’t you going to let me kiss your 
hand ? ” he asked plaintively, taking no 
notice of her question. The Princess 
extended her hand. 

“ If I had known you were coming, I ’d 
have washed it,” she remarked with a 
smile, feeling that she ought to be digni- 
fied and unapproachable, but finding it 
impossible in the sudden rush of happi- 


What the Parrot Said. 


199 


ness that had come over her. “Won’t 
you sit down ? ” she went on, trying not 
to laugh from sheer content. 

“ Is this one of those favorite spots of 
yours ? ” he asked when they had seated 
themselves in the shade of a huge oak. 

“ One of many. But, Captain Delorme, 
you have n’t told me how you got in.” 

“ And I don’t mean to,” he replied, 
smiling at her. “ Tell me instead if you 
are glad to see me ? ” 

“ I shall have to think about it,” re- 
turned the Princess. “You know it is not 
wise to commit yourself to statements 
that you have to live up to. Oh, dear — ” 
she broke off abruptly. 

“ What is it ? ” he asked. She looked 
at him for a second, then said : 

“ I had forgotten I was angry at you.” 
Raoul looked as if he wanted to laugh, 
but suppressed the inclination and said 
humbly : 

“ And I was forgetting that I owed 
you an apology. Can you forgive me, 
Princess ? The temptation is my only 


excuse. 


200 The Broken Ring. 

“ First I want to ask you something. 
Will you promise to tell me the truth ?” 

“ I certainly will not tell you an untruth. 
I may refuse to answer at all.” 

“ If you do, I shall know you did it.” 

“ What is it ? ” he demanded anxiously 
as she paused. She hesitated a little, then 
asked : 

“ Did you have anything to do with 
Louison’s disappearance that day ? Did 
you know anything whatsoever about it 
beforehand ? ” An expression of relief 
crossed his face as he asked : 

“ Is that all? You frightened me. I 
thought some of my sins were going to 
be dragged to light. No, on my honor. 
It was as great a mystery to me as it was 
to you until she turned up at headquar- 
ters. Do you believe me ? ” 

“ Of course,” she answered with a sigh 
of relief. 

“ Then I am forgiven ?” 

“ I forgave you for that long ago. 
There is nothing dishonest in a little sup- 
pression of facts. It was this other thing 
that was troubling me. I am so glad,” 


What the Parrot Said. 


201 


she added naively ; and then a silence fell 
between them while they took a long look 
at each other and smiled their pleasure at 
being together again. 

“I thought the peasant’s dress was be- 
coming, but I believe I like this better,” 
Raoul said at length, touching a fold of 
her light summer gown with the tip of his 
finger. “You look very much more im- 
posing, though more grown up. I shall 
not forget myself and take liberties with 
my Princess now.” 

“ They were never very great ones, 
only a little unceremonious way of talking 
to me, which, I regret to say, was any- 
thing but disagreeable to me. One gets 
tired of being on a pedestal ; the attitude 
is so cramped. But how is your arm ? 
What can I have been thinking of not to 
ask about it before.” He stretched it 
straight out in front of him. 

“It is as good as new. It never was 
much of a wound, though I suppose it 
would have been troublesome if it had n’t 
had such good care at first, thanks to you, 
Princess.” 


202 The Broken Ring . 

“To Louison, you mean. And how is 
Balder ? ” 

“Very well, and he sent you his best 
love * no, now I think of it, it was humble 
duty. Kriegmann had taken splendid 
care of him.” 

“ And how is my friend the Sergeant ? ” 

“ I don’t know. I have n’t seen him 
for a couple of months. He is at Fried- 
berg with the rest of the company. I 
have had a staff appointment.” 

“You have n’t asked after Louison,” 
she continued. 

“ I don’t want to know. She was a 
dreadful nuisance.” 

“ That ’s gratitude. Well, I want to 
tell you anyway. She is now a novice, 
telling her beads in a cell, and anxiously 
looking forward to the time when she 
shall be a nun. I have no doubt 
she prays for both you and me every 
day.” 

“ Well, it won’t hurt either of us,” Raoul 
said calmly. 

“I never saw you in civilian’s clothes 
before, and I can’t make up my mind 


What the Parrot Said . 203 

whether I like it or not,” the Princess re- 
marked a minute later. 

“You would n’t have had me come in 
uniform ? ” 

“ No, indeed, It is dangerous enough 
as it is. Do you know what would hap- 
pen to you if you were caught trespassing 
in the park ? ” 

“ I can guess,” he answered, with a 
smile of lazy content. 

“ And what do you suppose would hap- 
pen to me in that case ? We have some 
terrible gossips around the court, and 
they don’t like me any too well as it is.” 

“ They would probably like you twice 
as well if the intrigue which they would 
suspect were a fact. I am afraid you are 
too good for a court atmosphere, Princess.” 

“ Do you think I am so very, very 
good ? ” she demanded anxiously. 

“ I think you are very high-minded and 
that you don’t forget yourself easily 
enough for my taste, — not but that I 
admire you for it,” he added quickly. 

“You don’t think I am prudish then?” 

“ Not in the least.” 


204 


The Broken Ring . 


“ I am so glad. A great many people 
do, because I won’t listen to indecent 
scandal ; but that is n’t the reason. It is 
only that I dislike the intimacy of talk 
that has to be carried on with lowered 
voices.” Another delicious pause hap- 
pened, and then Raoul asked abruptly : 

“ And how about Prince Karl ? ” 

“ What about him ? ” asked the Princess, 
demurely. 

Are you going to be my future 
Queen?” 

“No, I am not,” she answered de- 
cidedly. 

“ May I ask why not ? ” 

“ I have told you more than once that 
I never intend to marry.” 

“You are making a mistake, I think,” 
he remarked calmly, much to her astonish- 
ment. “ Karl is a very decent sort of 
fellow, as fellows go. I knew him in 
Paris once upon a time. I suppose you 
will have to make an alliance de convenance 
some day, and this really seems the best 
thing you could do. Karl is n’t over- 
weighted with brains, perhaps, and he 


What the Parrot Said ’ 205 

is n’t an Adonis ; but I don’t believe he 
would intrude himself on you when he 
was drunk, or make you receive the ladies 
of the ballet, as the late Crown Prince 
might have done.” 

“ Does he get drunk ? ” asked Lenore. 
Raoul turned away his head to hide a 
smile. 

“ I never saw him so,” he answered. 
“ Indeed, Princess, if you will pardon my 
saying it, I think you are making a mis- 
take.” Lenore was looking very unhappy. 

“ Do you advise me to marry a man I 
do not and cannot love ? ” she asked so 
piteously that Raoul relented. 

“ I beg your pardon, Princess,” he said 
humbly. “ I was taking the liberty of 
teasing you a little.” She gave a sigh of 
relief as she said : 

“ I have told you so many times that I 
am never going to marry, and yet it 
does n’t seem to make the slightest impres- 
sion on you.” 

“ My dear Princess,” Raoul returned, 
“ I have heard several women say that 
before.” Lenore flushed with vexation. 


206 


The Broken Ring . 


“ So you don’t believe me ? ” she de- 
manded. “ Well, I will tell you the 
reason. What is that ? ” she broke off 
abruptly, rising to her feet, for voices 
were heard at a little distance. “You 
must go this instant. Some one is 
coming.” Raoul got up deliberately and 
said calmly : 

“ Not until you promise to meet me 
here to-morrow night.” 

“ I can’t ! ” protested Lenore. 

“ Then I ’ll stay.” 

“ Oh, I will ! Anything ! Only go !” 

“ You must tell me why you won’t 
marry first.” 

“I shall never marry because — ’’she 
hesitated, looked him straight in the eyes, 
and then finished her sentence — “because 
I am married already.” She did not have 
a chance to watch the effect of her bomb- 
shell, because the voices and footsteps 
were now distinctly audible, and Raoul 
had disappeared among the trees behind 
them. A second later, her father appeared, 
supported on the arm of the court-physi- 
cian. 


What the Parrot Said, 207 

“ They told us you were here,” he said 
to his daughter, “ so we walked in this 
direction.” 

“ I am glad to see you taking some 
exercise,” said the Princess, trying not to 
look anxious. 

“ The doctor insisted on it, — but what 
is the matter, Lenore ? You look dis- 
turbed.” 

“ I did n’t know who you might be,” 
she answered truthfully. 

“ Did you think we were trespassers ? 
You should not stay out here alone if you 
feel nervous, though I am sure no one 
could get in. The guards are very watch- 
ful.” 

That night the Princess remembered 
that she had never once mentioned the 
picture in the locket. She had been so 
absorbed in her companion that she had 
never once thought of it, although it had 
been in her mind constantly since the 
Duke’s revelation concerning it. She 
could not help having a happy little 
feeling inside of her that she was to see 
Delorme again, at the same time that her 


208 


The Broken Ring. 


pride objected to the manner of it. Some- 
thing suggested to her that she was not 
bound to keep a promise extorted from 
her in that way, that this was a case where 
honor stood rooted in dishonor, and that 
it would be far more virtuous to break 
her word than to keep it ; but this some- 
thing was not encouraged to present its 
views. 

A flight of steps in a corner turret led 
down from the Princess’s apartments to a 
small private garden consecrated to her 
especial use. This opened into the big 
gardens, and these again into the park, so 
the question of outgoings and incomings 
was not a perplexing one. The following 
evening she retired to her rooms at about 
eleven, dismissed her maids, and, five 
minutes later, having thrown a lace scarf 
over her evening gown, walked calmly 
down the little spiral staircase, unlocked 
the door at the foot of the turret, and 
walked across the two gardens, which 
were separated only by a hedge, and 
out into the park beyond, through a 
gate in the iron palings, of which she 


What the Parrot Said. 209 

had a key. The gardens were lighted 
by incandescent lamps with colored globes, 
but out in the park a faint gleam of moon- 
light threw strange dark shadows on the 
turf underfoot, and lent a shade of mys- 
tery to spots that she knew so well by the 
light of the sun. In one open glade, sur- 
rounded by beeches, a group of deer stood 
drinking out of a little pool, but they scat- 
tered at her approach, though they would 
run up to meet her in the daytime, and 
take pieces of bread out of her hand. 
Nevertheless, Lenore was not frightened. 
She was only excited and very, very happy, 
though she reproached herself for being 
so. She made her way to the big oak, so 
absorbed in the tumult of feeling inside 
her that she was hardly conscious of the 
beauty of the night around her. As she 
approached, Raoul came to meet her. 
He was in uniform once more, full-dress 
uniform, and it suited him very well. 

“We must not stay here ; it is not 
safe,” Lenore said, without any greeting, 
and, turning, she silently led the way to a 
wilder part of the park by paths the deer 


210 


The Broken Ring . 


had made. At last she stopped on a lit- 
tle hillock covered with pines, with an 
open space all around it, except just at 
the back, where a dense thicket of young 
trees grew. 

“ Nobody could surprise you here,” she 
said quietly, seating herself on a fallen 
tree. The moonbeams, flittering through 
the thick foliage above, fell on her uncov- 
ered head and on her white neck and 
arms, shining through the film of lace that 
covered them. The gleam of diamonds 
was in her hair and on her neck. Raoul 
sank down on the ground, leaning his 
back against the tree on which she was 
sitting, and said in the plaintive tone she 
could never resist : 

“ You need not be so dignified, Prin- 
cess. I know perfectly well you did n’t 
say you ’dcome of your own accord. You 
don’t have to make it so evident.” Lenore 
had to unbend a little as she answered : 

“It makes me feel so cheap, like a 
kitchen maid having a stolen interview 
with a groom.” 

“ What a proud person you are ! ” ex- 


What the Parrot Said. 


21 1 


claimed Raoul. “ Now I am different. I 
have n’t an atom of that inconvenient 
article, and if a pleasant thing comes in 
my way, I take it without a thought of 
my dignity, though perhaps you are think- 
ing I have n’t much to compromise.” 

“ Yes,” the Princess answered calmly. 
“ The way you used to treat me when we 
were at the mill showed me you had n’t 
any pride.” Raoul had to laugh. 

“ Oh, the mill,” he replied, ** were we 
ever there ? It seemed as if all that 
happened some time in the dark ages to 
one of my ancestors, and that I had read 
about it in a book. Do you know, Prin- 
cess, I have lost my first impression of 
you completely.” 

“ I am glad of that,” she said fervently. 
“ For it was a very disagreeable self I 
showed you.” 

“ I wonder you were not more so, the 
position was such an irritating one,” he 
remarked. 

“You were very polite to me,” she 
replied. 

“As much so as you are tp me to 


212 


The Broken Ring . 


night ? ” he asked ; then went on in a 
tone of entreaty : “ Please don’t be so 
very — far-off, Princess. I am not going 
to presume, and you need n’t keep me in 
my place. I know what you are feeling 
about it, so let ’s forget it all and be 
happy. I am dreadfully afraid of you 
when you are so dignified ; and you look 
so stunning in your lace and diamonds 
that I feel I ought to get down on my 
knees and say my prayers to you.” The 
corners of the Princess’s mouth relaxed 
into a smile. She relented, in spite of all 
her resolutions to the contrary, and said 
genially : 

“ Since I have come, I suppose I might 
as well enjoy it. It is poor policy to have 
the sin on my conscience and none of the 
fun.” 

“ I should say it was. What does it 
matter if you do unbend a little for one 
night? It is only the humblest of your 
slaves.” 

“Yes, I have found you very humble,” 
remarked the Princess, sarcastically. 

il Did Prince Karl ever see you like 


What the Parrot Said. 


213 


this ? ” he demanded abruptly and incon- 
sequently. 

“ Like what? You don’t mean at a 
secret rendezvous ? ” 

“ Good heavens, no ! I mean in this 
magnificent get-up.” 

‘‘He has never seen me at all.” 

“Are you sure of that? Don’t you 
suppose he had a surreptitious glance be- 
fore he made his proposals? Now you 
probably would have said I never saw you 
before I took you prisoner.” 

“ I most certainly should have. I ap- 
pear in public so seldom. Still you must 
have seen me to recognize me as you did. 
I have always been meaning to ask you 
about that.” 

“ I saw you in Paris two years ago, and 
spent an afternoon in a fiacre chasing 
around after your carriage. You were 
with the Princess Helena.” 

“Really ! ” exclaimed Lenore, with great 
interest. “ Why did n’t you ever tell me 
before ? ” 

“ And I ’ll wager this Karl has seen 
you too Raoul was beginning without 


214 The Broken Ring. 

taking any notice of her question, when 
she interrupted him : 

“ Why do you keep dragging his name 
in?” 

“ Because, as I told you the other 
day, I think he would make an excellent 
husband for Your Highness.” Lenore 
frowned. 

“ Have you forgotten what I told you 
yesterday?” she demanded. 

“You were not joking then ?” 

“Joking! I should say I was not. It 
is as true as that I am sitting here.” To 
her surprise, her companion did not seem 
at all dismayed at the tidings. She had 
fancied that it had been in his thoughts 
continuously ever since she told him, and 
that it would be the first subject he would 
introduce. His indifference was discon- 
certing. 

“ How did it happen ? Will you tell 
me ? ” he asked calmly. 

“ I hardly know myself. It was when 
I was a child, and the marriage was made 
for political reasons. My mother told me 
because she was afraid my father would 


What the Parrot Said . 


215 


marry me to some one else, which she 
thought would be a sin, even if I did it 
unconsciously ; and she made me promise 
solemnly not to let him know I knew, for 
she was sure he would be very angry at 
her.” 

“ But who is the man ?” asked Raoul. 

“That is the strangest part of all. I 
do not know who it was. My mother 
would not tell me. It was a boy, a few 
years older than myself, I fancy. The 
marriage was to cement a treaty and was 
to be kept secret for several years ; but 
soon afterwards, for some reason that I 
don’t understand, they did n’t wish to be 
friends any longer, — my father and the 
other people concerned, I mean, — so they 
agreed to ignore it. I suppose it would 
have had to be made public if they had 
had it annulled. There, that is all I know, 
the most of that is guess-work.” 

“ And do you really mean to tell me 
that you don’t know who your husband 
is ? ” demanded Raoul. 

“ I have n’t an idea. I have thought 
over every one of suitable rank a thou- 


2l6 


The Broke?i Ring. 

sand times, but not one of them seems 
probable. Besides he may be dead, or 
married, not knowing that he had a wife 
already. When my mother told me, she 
said there were only two people alive 
besides herself who knew, and that my 
father was one of these. The other may 
be dead by this time too.” 

“ Perhaps he was not of very high rank. 
There might be some secret hold over 
the Duke that you do not know about.” 

“ Perhaps,” the Princess answered 
slowly. “ I have often thought of that. 
The marriage being ignored so completely 
looks that way ; and yet, my father has 
a great deal of pride, and I do not think 
any compulsion would make him marry 
his daughter beneath her. I wish I had n’t 
made that promise to my mother,” she 
added. “ I have often wondered if I am 
really bound by it. It would make no 
difference to her now if my father were 
displeased with her. I reason it all out 
that I am not bound, yet, someway, I can 
never make up my mind to break it.” 

“ And can you remember nothing your- 


What the Parrot Said, 217 

self, or were you too young?” Raoul 
asked. 

“There are one or two things I remem- 
ber about it, though I had no idea at the 
time what was happening. It was only 
by the light of after knowledge that I put 
two and two together. The scene made 
a great impression on me,” she went on. 
“ It was in the middle of the night and I 
had been asleep hours and hours, and my 
mother awoke me herself, and dressed me 
in a magnificent frock that I had never 
seen before, and she did n’t know how my 
clothes went and had difficulty putting 
them on, and when I looked around for 
my nurse, she was not in the room. And 
then my father came and carried me in his 
arms to the chapel and I was a little fright- 
ened in the dark passages, but the bright 
light in the chapel and my new clothes 
soon made me forget it. And then I 
remember a little boy who took my hand 
and kissed me, and then the next thing — 
Do you know, Captain Delorme,” she 
broke off, “ I have always thought I could 
know my husband by what happened next. 


2 1 8 


The Broken Ring. 


He would be sure to remember it, for he 
was older than I, and I know I dreamed 
of it for years afterwards. All I would 
have to do to be sure he was the right 
person would be to ask him what the 
parrot said.” 

“ The parrot said, ‘ Go to Hell,’ ” 
Raoul replied solemnly. Lenore rose 
to her feet and he followed her example. 

“ Some one has told you,” she ex- 
claimed. 

“ Listen to me for a minute,” he said 
imperiously ; then went on in his usual 
quiet manner : “ And the little girl was 
holding the little boy’s hand and a big 
man was standing in front of them in a 
gorgeous robe of white and gold, and he 
was reading something out of a book. 
And finally he stopped, and a queer 
cracked voice came out of the shadows 
behind the altar, ‘ Go to Hell.’ And the 
big man was so startled that he dropped 
the book, and the little boy’s father went 
to see what it was, and he found the par- 
rot and chased it out of a window. But, 
Princess, you must n’t look so pale. Sit 


What the Parrot Said. 


219 


down, I beg of you, and let me finish my 
story.” Lenore sank down on the fallen 
tree, overpowered by the tale she was 
hearing, some of which she had remem- 
bered before, but all of which came back to 
her as what had really happened. What 
did it mean that this young soldier, a mere 
captain in the army, could tell it to her ? 
He must have been a boy himself at the 
time. Was there another one present be- 
sides the one to whom she had been mar- 
ried ? In the meanwhile the familiar voice 
was continuing : “ And after the parrot 
had been put out the window, the big man 
produced a ring, and the little boy’s father, 
who prided himself on being very strong 
in his fingers, took it and broke it into two 
parts. One you have in your hand, Prin- 
cess, and here is the other.” He placed 
a fragment of a gold ring in her lap, then 
taking a wax taper out of his pocket, he 
lit it and held it towards her. Lenore 
mechanically picked up the piece of a ring 
and placed it beside the one she had 
brought with her to show him. The two 
parts fitted perfectly, making a plain gold 


220 


The Broken Ring. 


marriage ring of the smallest size. She 
then turned over the two halves and read 
the inscription engraved inside. She did 
not need to look at her own. She knew 
every letter of the “ n-o-r-e — R.” On his 
she read, “ a-o-u-1 — L-e.” The taper flick- 
ered and went out. 

“ I do not understand what this means, 
Captain Delorme,” she said presently, re- 
covering herself. 

“ It means that you are my wife,” he 
replied quietly. The Princess rose to her 
feet again, dropping the pieces of ring to 
the ground, and drew herself up to her full 
height. 

“It is impossible,” she replied coldly. 

“ On the contrary, it is the literal truth,” 
said Raoul. “Your father would confirm 
it if you were at liberty to ask him.” She 
gave him a look that made him shiver in 
spite of the warmth of the evening, as she 
demanded : 

“ Do you mean to tell me that I, the 
Princess Lenore of Herzogthum, the fu- 
ture Duchess of that country, am the wife 
of a captain in the army of Konigreich ? 


What the Parrot Said. 


221 


It is preposterous. Nothing could have 
forced my father into such an infamous 
act.” 

“ Nevertheless, it is the truth,” Raoul 
answered, with difficulty controlling the 
anger that her scorn of him aroused. 
“ May I ask, Princess, why you are so 
contemptuous?” he continued. “I may 
not be your equal in rank, but I have fre- 
quently heard you lament the necessity of 
marrying, if at all, for reasons of state. 
You have often been an advocate of mar- 
riages for love.” Lenore interrupted him : 

“ What has love to do with it?” she 
demanded haughtily. Raoul turned white 
as he answered : 

^ It happens to have a great deal to do 
with it, in this particular case.” The Prin- 
cess stared at him angrily. 

“ Do you mean that you are deluding 
yourself with the. idea that the Princess 
Lenore is in love with you, Captain De- 
lorme ? I certainly thought you were a 
gentleman, whatever else your birth might 
lack. I should as soon think of being in 
love with my footman,” Then Raoul lost 


222 


The Broken Ring . 


all control of himself, and said with the 
calmness that denoted the white heat of 
anger with him : 

“ And I thought you were a lady. Still, 
though I might have been your footman, 
I happen to be your husband, and, that 
being the case, I do not see why I should 
not have the smallest one of my rights.” 
And moving quickly towards her as she 
stood there in the moonlight, her eyes 
flashing as brilliantly as her diamonds, he 
took her in his arms and kissed her on her 
cheek before she had divined what he was 
going to do. It was only a second before 
he came to his senses and loosed his 
arms. A second later he found himself 
alone. He was ashamed of himself and, 
at the same time, exultant at what he had 
done. He blushed for his deed, while his 
young, vigorous blood danced in his veins 
with joy ; and falling full length on the 
ground, he kissed the grass which her feet 
had trampled. The touch of something 
cold met his lips. It was one of the pieces 
of the ring. 


CHAPTER XI. 


AN AMBASSADOR. 

O NE evening, about ten days after 
Captain Delorme had made his 
astonishing communication to 
her, the Princess was dressing for a state 
reception, having dined alone in her own 
apartments, when a page brought word 
that the Duke wished to see her as soon 
as she was dressed. She found him in a 
small ante-chamber to the ball-room, talk- 
ing with some officials, who withdrew as 
she entered. 

“ You wished to see me, Father,” 
Lenore began. The Duke plunged 
boldly in. 

“ I wish to speak to you about an am- 
bassador whom Prince Karl has sent to 
plead his suit for him.” 

How very impertinent and how very 

223 


224 


The Broken Ring . 


ungentlemanly ! ” exclaimed the Princess. 
“ I would not have believed it of any man. 
After I had distinctly said that nothing on 
earth could make me listen to him ! ” The 
Duke hesitated, coughed a little, then 
said : 

“ The truth is, my dear, that they, I 
mean I, did not think it best to transmit 
your message quite as you gave it.” The 
Princess looked at him scornfully. 

“ I suppose you told him that I was un- 
decided, that I was a young girl who did 
not know her own mind, that the idea of 
marriage frightened me, and all the rest of 
it ? ” The Duke moved uneasily from one 
foot to another, for this was unpleasantly 
near the message that had been sent. 

“ I hope you wont be rude to this 
young man,” he said timidly. “ He is an 
old comrade of Prince Karl’s and very 
high in General Malakoff’s favor. He is 
on his own personal staff.” Lenore’s 
heart gave a leap as a wild idea flashed 
through her head at her father’s words, 
but she dismissed it the next second as 
preposterous, and answered calmly ; 


An Ambassador . 


225 


“ Of course I shall not. He is probably 
not worth being rude to, and, besides, he 
is not to blame, and it is not fair that I 
should treat him as if he were. I shall be 
perfectly civil and friendly, but I shall not 
leave him in doubt as to my state of mind 
towards his master.” 

“ If you would only hear what he has 
to say about the Prince first,” entreated 
the Duke. 

“ I have not the slightest objection to 
that. He may talk about him for a week 
if it will give you any pleasure. Indeed, 
I should rather like to know something 
about him. He must have had a roman- 
tic life, and the papers have said so re- 
markably little about his past that one 
can’t help suspecting that it has been 
hushed up for some purpose. Now, 
Father, shall we go in ? We are late as 
it is.” 

“He is really a very attractive young 
man. I was much taken with him,” the 
Duke remarked, as he offered his arm to 
his daughter and conducted her across the 
room and through the heavy portieres 
15 


226 


The Broken Ring . 


into the ball-room beyond. Two officials, 
standing on each side, raised their wands 
as they appeared, and an instantaneous 
silence fell upon the assembly. To the 
left of the doorway was a group of men 
and women, among whom was a tall, 
broad-shouldered young soldier in full- 
dress uniform, with many ribbons and 
medals on his breast. It was towards this 
group that the Duke turned. 

“ Captain Delorme,” he said ceremoni- 
ously to the young soldier, “ I wish to 
present you to my daughter, the Princess 
Lenore.” The young man flushed slightly 
and the Princess turned white, but neither 
showed any more emotion than could be 
attributed to the mission on which he had 
come and the Princess’s well known feel- 
ings about it. Many eyes were upon 
them, so Lenore extended her hand for 
him to kiss, saying in her most royal 
manner : 

“ I trust you will enjoy your stay among 
us, Captain Delorme,” and passed on to 
another group of the ladies of the court. 
The Duke looked uneasy, and tried to 


An Ambassador . 


227 


cover his daughters coldness by extra 
cordiality to the young ambassador. He 
could not understand it. She had said 
that she would be friendly, and Lenore 
always kept her word. 

Long practice at self-repression made it 
possible for the Princess to talk to those 
people whom she was pleased to notice as 
if her mind were in her words. And so it 
was to a certain extent, for she had learned 
to put private concerns aside until public 
duties were performed. When supper 
was announced and she had established 
herself at the head of the table over 
which she presided, with those individuals 
to whom she was the least indifferent or 
whom she wished to honor, on either side 
of her, the Court Chamberlain came up 
with Captain Delorme, and a request from 
the Duke that the Princess would give 
him the seat at her right hand. The 
Duke was brave when he was at a little 
distance from his daughter. There was 
nothing to do but to comply as graciously 
as possible. She was too proud to seem 
to avoid talking to her guest, so she ad- 


228 


The Broken Ring . 


dressed some commonplace remarks to 
him in a manner that, while it seemed 
friendly to the others at the table, would 
accentuate in his mind the difference be- 
tween the past and the present. Delorme 
was as thoroughly master of himself as 
she was, and answered her remarks appro- 
priately ; and when she turned to her left- 
hand neighbor, devoted himself, with a 
great deal of apparent interest, to the very 
pretty Maid of Honor who sat on the 
other side of him. This was the Countess 
Hilda von Lindenberg, a wealthy young 
heiress, whose good spirits amused the 
Princess, at the same time that her slight- 
ness of character made it impossible for 
her to feel any real friendship for her. 
Delorme seemed t.o find her very amusing 
himself, and it apparently did not concern 
him that his other neighbor did not pay 
him as much attention as was the due of 
the guest of honor who sat on her right 
hand. 

During the next few days, the Duke 
arranged frequent interviews between his 
daughter and Delorme, in the course of 


An Ambassador . 229 

which they kept strictly to their role of 
strangers, at the same time that the am- 
bassador did not once refer to his errand, 
the furthering of the cause of Prince Karl. 
At last, the Princess came to be a little 
piqued that he never gave a hint, in word 
or look, of having so much as seen her 
before the Duke had presented him to 
her in the ball-room on the night of his 
arrival ; and that he seemed as anxious as 
herself to avail himself of every pretext 
to put an end to his conversations with 
her. It had not taken him twenty-four 
hours to be on the best of terms with 
every one else about the court. With 
the Countess Hilda, he was especially 
friendly, and, from her windows, Lenore 
often saw them walking in the garden and 
the park together, laughing and talking 
as if they.had known each other all their 
lives. The Countess was so full of his 
praises that she could talk of nothing else, 
and Lenore heard frequent descriptions 
of traits and little ways about which she 
was very much better posted than her 
companion. It interested as well as pained 


230 


The Broken Ring . 


her to watch the Countess’s blind sallies in 
a country she knew so well ; and she con- 
tinually found herself changing the sub- 
ject and leading up to it again in a way 
that annoyed her with its inconsistency. 
The ignorance of those about her of there 
being any especial tie between her and 
Delorme surprised her. She could hardly 
believe in it. It seemed as if all they had 
been to each other must be written on 
their faces, where any one could read it. 

About a week after Delorme’s arrival, 
a ceremony was to take place in the chapel 
of the palace. The baby of one of the 
court officials was to be christened, and 
the Princess was to stand god-mother. 
The chapel was a beautiful specimen of 
Gothic architecture, with rare pieces of 
carving and wonderful stained-glass win- 
dows, through which the morning sunlight 
was streaming. All the court was assem- 
bled, the men in full-dress uniform and 
the women in the thinnest and lightest of 
muslins, for the day was very warm. De- 
lorme was given a good place in front, di- 
rectly opposite the font where the Princess 


An Ambassador . 


231 


stood with the baby in her arms, the red 
light from the window above her giving a 
tinge of rose to her white gown and the 
long embroidered robes of the child. The 
organ was being played softly, and not a 
rustle broke the reverent hush as the old 
priest pronounced a blessing on the child 
he had named. Delorme had never seen 
the chapel before, and his thoughts were 
busy with the other ceremony that had 
taken place there so many years before, as 
he tried to adjust his recollections to the 
reality. When the Princess turned to 
leave the font, their eyes met, for the first 
time with any consciousness of the past 
in them, and he knew by the faint blush 
that came to her cheeks that her thoughts 
had been where his had been. He looked 
over to where the Duke stood serene and 
self-satisfied. Evidently he had dismissed 
that other sacrament from his memory in 
full confidence that it would never be 
brought to light. The Princess had to 
pass close by the end of the seat where he 
was standing. 

“ Forgive me,” he murmured as she 


232 The Broken Ring . 

went by. She must have heard him, 
though her face gave no sign ; but neither 
did she look angry. He noticed that she 
said something to her father as they 
passed down the aisle together, and a 
moment later he himself received a mes- 
sage from the Duke that the Princess 
would receive him in the tapestry room 
immediately. He was to be given another 
chance to plead the cause of Prince Karl. 
The Duke did not know how little he had 
availed himself of the former ones. 

The Countess Hilda waylaid him out- 
side of the ante-chamber through which 
the tapestry room was reached, and he 
had to stop a minute and listen to some 
story she had to tell him. The story 
was very amusing and was well told to 
the accompaniment of a most agreeable 
laugh, but he found it hard to appear 
as amused as politeness demanded. 

"What is the matter?” she asked. 
"You look as solemn as if you were 
going to be led to execution.” 

" I am to have an interview with the 
Princess,” he answered literally, too ab- 


An Ambassador . 


233 


sent-minded to think of the application to 
her words. The Countess laughed again 
as she said : 

“ I don’t wonder you look frightened. 
I have noticed you did n’t seem to take 
to her especially ; still, she is n’t so dread- 
ful as she looks.” 

“ No,” Delorme answered, smiling, “but 
she is n’t exactly the kind of girl you 
are.” The Countess looked gratified, 
and took her departure. Raoul stepped 
through the portieres that separated the 
ante-room from the passage, and found 
himself in the presence of the Princess. 
Had she heard, he wondered. She did 
not show any signs of discomposure as 
she turned and addressed him, but her 
manner was icier than it had ever been, 
even in those first days at the mill. 

“The Duke has instructed me to re- 
ceive you,” she said. 

“ Is it to be here, Your Highness?” he 
asked. 

“ Is n’t this imposing enough for the 
ambassador of a prince ? As it happens, 
we cannot go into the tapestry room, for 


234 


The Broken Ring . 


a very prosaic reason, — they have been 
burning pepper there to keep away moths. 
I might as well tell you once for all,” she 
went on, “ that anything you have to say 
to me on the subject of Prince Karl is so 
.much waste of breath ; but if you consider 
it necessary, in order to say that you have 
done your best, it had better be now. I 
shall not trouble myself with any more 
purposeless interviews.” 

During the christening, Raoul had 
made up his mind so decidedly that 
another day should not pass without 
some definite understanding with the 
Princess, that even the coldness of her 
manner and the fear that she might have 
overheard his conversation with the 
Countess Hilda did not keep him from 
saying : 

“ There are other subjects than Prince 
Karl on which I should like to talk to 
Your Highness.” He was not looking at 
her any longer with the eyes of a stranger. 
Lenore frowned as she replied, in her 
most frigid tones : 

“ There is no other subject possible 


An A mbassador. 235 

between Captain Delorme and myself.” 
Raoul moved a step nearer. 

“ Princess,” he said seriously, “when 
you stood in the chapel just now, and 
remembered the other ceremony that took 
place there so many years ago, did it not 
make you feel a little more kindly towards 
the boy who stood by your side then ? 
Can you not forgive me ? The provoca- 
tion was great.” The Princess flushed, 
and she answered angrily : 

“ Are you going to revive that absurd 
story again ? Do you really think you 
can impose on me with it ? As if I did n’t 
know you got the particulars from some 
one else. I was a fool to tell you about 
my promise to my mother. As if the 
Duke would have married his daughter 
to a man in your position. Besides, you 
said that my father would confirm your 
story, and evidently you are an utter 
stranger to him.” Delorme had been 
growing whiter and whiter, and now he 
said calmly : 

“ It is only that he has not yet realized 
my identity. As for the rest of what you 


236 


The Broken Ring . 


have said, it is false, and you know it. 
You choose to pretend to doubt my word 
because you think you can hurt me most 
in that way. You know that I told you 
the literal truth and that I am incapable 
of anything else ; and — by God — you shall 
not leave the room until you acknowledge 
it.” He placed himself in front of the 
door, which he had shut in the beginning 
of their interview in response to a gesture 
of hers. The Princess looked him straight 
in the eyes : 

“ I never shall,” she said defiantly. They 
looked at each other for a full minute with 
concentrated rage in both their eyes, and 
then Delorme dropped his and stepped 
aside. 

“ I beg your pardon,” he said as quietly 
as if he had trodden on her gown. “ That 
is not the way to do it. Pass by, my 
Princess.” He opened the door for her, 
and she swept out of the room without 
another look. 

That same afternoon, Captain Delorme, 
to his unmixed astonishment, received 
word that the Princess would like to see 


An Ambassador . 


237 


him in her private apartments. It was the 
first time that he had ever entered them, 
but he was too disturbed in mind to take 
in more than a general sense of beauty 
and harmony. The Princess was sitting 
in a carved oaken chair that resembled a 
throne in a projecting window, her hands 
occupied with a piece of embroidery. The 
Countess Hilda and another lady of the 
court were sewing beside her ; but when 
the page announced Captain Delorme, 
they took up their work and retreated to 
the other end of the room, far enough off 
to be out of earshot. The Princess in- 
clined her head as he approached and mo- 
tioned him to a seat, but did not rise or 
lay aside her work. 

“ Captain Delorme,” she said without 
any preliminaries, “ I wish to beg your 
pardon for what I said to you this morn- 
ing. As you said, I knew perfectly well 
that it was not true. The story is too im- 
probable to have really happened, but I 
am certain that you believe in it. I never 
have had the slightest doubt on the sub- 
ject.” Raoul turned pale and appeared so 


238 


The Broken Ring, 


moved that she said anxiously : “ Do be 
careful. My women can see you. You 
had better turn your chair so as to face 
the window. I will appear to be calling 
your attention to something.” He did as 
she told him to, and in a second was him- 
self again. 

“ I never expected this,” he said in a low 
voice. "And I do not think I have de- 
served it. You have much to forgive me 
for, Princess.” 

“ I wished to say this to you for my own 
sake, not yours,” she continued. “ Pride 
of birth is all very well, but it is not neces- 
sary to heap scorn on those who are not 
so fortunate. I was going to tell you this 
this morning, but I was angry at you gos- 
siping about me with one of my Maids of 
Honor, and so I made my offence even 
worse. I tell you frankly that I am 
ashamed of myself.” 

“ Ah, Princess,” said Raoul ; then 
added : “ And will you forgive me ? ” 

“ As I hope to be forgiven. I do not 
suppose we can ever be friends again, but- 
there is no reason that I know of why we 


An Ambassador . 


2 39 


should not be friendly during the rest of 
your stay here. I believe you go to- 
morrow or next day.” 

“ The Duke has asked me to ^tay 
another week. He wants me to be here 
for his birthday ; but it shall be as Your 
Highness says,” he replied humbly. 

“Stay if you like. It will do no good, 
but neither will it do any harm. We 
both have a great deal to regret, but the 
provocation was so extreme that I do not 
think we need have any hard feelings. 
Besides, I feel under great obligations to 
you for your behavior towards me in the 
mountains, and I do not like to seem 
ungrateful.” 

“ Don’t talk of gratitude,” entreated 
Raoul, who was quite overcome, and had 
appeared most unlike himself all through 
the interview. 

“ As to — the subject of our quarrel,” 
Lenore continued, “ I do not see that it 
matters much whether it is true or not. 
It cannot be binding in any case, and it 
would be the simplest matter in the world 
to get it annulled when either of us wants 


240 


The Broken Ring . 


to marry. Perhaps it was done years ago. 
There is no reason you should not ask 
the Duke about it some time* There, 
Captain Delorme, you may go now,” she 
said, in conclusion ; then, holding out her 
hand to him : “ If we can’t be friends, 
there is no reason why we should be ene- 
mies.” He bent and kissed it, and then 
bowed himself out of the room without a 
word more. The Countess Hilda was 
both surprised and grieved that he did 
not so much as look in her direction. 

The next morning, the Princess was 
cutting roses in her private garden and 
talking with the Countess Hilda, when 
the Duke joined them, accompanied by 
Captain Delorme, to whom he had taken 
a great fancy. After a little general con- 
versation, he withdrew, taking the Coun- 
tess, much against her will, with him, and 
leaving Delorme with his daughter. The 
latter went on cutting pink roses without 
apparently noticing her change of com- 
panions ; but she was smiling a little and 
did not look formidable, so Raoul ven- 
tured to address her. 


An Ambassador . 


241 


“ Is it true, Princess ?” he asked boldly. 

“ Is what true ?” she returned. 

“That we are — not — enemies any 
longer ?” 

“ Not unless you feel disposed to quar- 
rel with me.” 

“ There is nothing on earth I feel less 
like doing. Can’t you leave those roses ? 
You must have cut a ton,” he went on, 
resuming his old manner towards her. 
Lenore smiled with pleasure, but turned 
away her face so that he could not see it. 

“Will you have a rose?” she asked. 
“ Oh, I forgot. Hilda gave you one.” 

He took the flower out of his button- 
hole, dropped it on the gravel path, and 
deliberately crushed it with his heel ; then 
stretched out his hand for Lenore’s rose. 

“ The Countess would feel flattered,” 
said the latter. 

“ This button-hole shall never have 
another person’s flower in it, now that 
you have honored it,” he said, looking at 
her with a smile in his eyes. Before she 
knew it the Princess was smiling back. 

“ Are we not something more than just 


242 


The Broken Ring . 


not — enemies?” he demanded. All his 
humility had left him. 

“ I never meant to be friends with you 
again,” she replied hesitatingly. “You 
see you showed me once that it was pos- 
sible for you to misconstrue my friendship. 
You don’t think so now, do you ?” 

“I don’t think what, Princess?” he 
asked, purposely refusing to understand 
her. 

“ You don’t think I care for you ? ” she 
answered, turning and looking him straight 
in the eyes, though her face flushed a 
little. 

“ I only wish I could,” he replied ; then 
went on : “We may agree that our mar- 
riage is nothing, Princess, but still we 
can’t treat each other quite like other 
people. It is a something between us 
that neither of us can ever forget. And 
then there are those happy, happy days 
we spent together when, with no stupid 
formalities between us, we learned to 
know each other as we really are, and to 
trust one another, and to feel that we are 
really in sympathy, no matter to what 


An Ambassador . 


243 


different stations of life we have been 
called. I know I could not feel that 
sense of being in my right place when I 
am beside you if it were not, to a certain 
extent, mutual. We have not long to be 
together, let us enjoy that. Everybody 
is anxious to throw us together, and it 
will seem the most natural thing in the 
world. The Duke just now advised me 
to persuade you to take a walk in the 
park. Will you go, Princess?” Her 
eyes had been cast down on the ground 
during this speech, and she had looked 
like anybody rather than the proud Prin- 
cess Lenore ; but now she raised them 
and there was a question in their depths, 
which Raoul answered when he assured 
her solemnly : 

“ You need not be afraid of me. I will 
not let myself remember that there is a 
shadow of a bond between us. I promise 
you, on my honor, that I will never take 
any personal liberty with you unless you 
yourself first take one with me, — not that 
I should consider it a liberty,” he added, 
with a smile. Lenore smiled too. 


244 


The Broken Ring . 


“ I will go with you,” she said, evidently 
not at all offended at the familiarity in the 
last speech. And together they walked 
across the gardens and out into the shady 
recesses of the park. 


CHAPTER XII. 


THE PRINCESS SURRENDERS. 

C APTAIN DELORME stayed sev- 
eral days longer at the court of 
Herzogthum, and it was astonish- 
ing how many interviews with the Princess 
his mission required. The Duke began 
to be very hopeful. The court was un- 
usually gay, and an entertainment of some 
kind took place almost every evening. 
Lenpre had always looked on these func- 
tions as disagreeable duties to be gone 
through with ; but now she found herself 
taking actual pleasure in them, so great a 
difference does the presence of one per- 
son with whom we are in absolute sym- 
pathy make. 

On the King’s birthday there were great 
festivities, finished off by a reception held 
in the garden. The night was warm and 
245 


246 The Broken Ring . 

beautiful, and every foot of the gardens 
was lighted up by electric lights in colored 
globes. It was a beautiful sight. The 
King and the Princess received the am- 
bassadors, the dignitaries of state, the 
nobility and gentry of Herzogthum, and 
the distinguished foreigners visiting the 
country, on a raised platform. Raoul had 
no eyes for any one but Lenore, who was 
looking more beautiful than he had ever 
seen her, in a Paris creation of some white 
gauzy stuff. He stayed near her as long 
as he dared, and then wandered away to 
a seat near by, whence he could still look 
at her. Here he was joined by the Coun- 
tess Hilda and several others, but being 
in the mood for anything but merriment, 
he managed to make his escape on some 
pretext or other. 

Although she had not seemed to notice 
him, the Princess had been conscious of 
his presence, and when he disappeared, 
her gaiety went with him. She became 
preoccupied, and it was only the force of 
long habit that kept her up to her duties. 
At length, however, they were over for 


The Princess Surrenders . 247 

the moment, and she was free to amuse 
herself as she chose. She looked around 
in vain for Raoul, not that she intended 
to seek him, and then lost herself in a 
little grove that , stood back of the plat- 
form. It was not so light here, and the 
music was fainter. She sat down on a 
bench to rest. Presently she heard voices, 
and saw Delorme coming through the 
trees towards her. With him was the 
child of the Master of Horse, a boy of 
four, who was the plaything of the whole 
court. 

“ May we join you, Princess ? ” he asked, 
coming straight towards her. 

“ What are you doing up at this time 
of night, Rene?” asked the Princess, 
answering him only with a smile. 

“ As if the reception could go on with- 
out Rene to look after things,” said 
Raoul. 

“ You said you ’Id toss me some more 
when we got away from the people,” 
Rene demanded indignantly of his com- 
panion. 

“Well, you ask the Princess if I may,” 


248 


The Broken Ring . 


said Raoul. The child ran up to her and 
rested his arms on her lap. 

“ Please may he ? We ’ll be very good 
and won’t wake the baby,” he added from 
force of habit. 

“ You little stupid, the baby is n’t here,” 
said Raoul, when Lenore had given con- 
sent and he had picked him up in his 
arms. He threw him up in the air sev- 
eral times, catching him as he came down. 
Rene screamed with delight and demanded 
to be thrown higher. Lenore became 
nervous and rose to her feet. 

“ Oh, do stop ! ” she entreated. 

“ Just once more,” pleaded Rene. 

“ Will you promise not to tease for any 
more then ? ” asked the Princess. Rene 
nodded his little head and Delorme 
gathered him up for a final toss. He threw 
him so high that Lenore shuddered. 

“ Oh, Raoul ! ” she exclaimed involun- 
tarily ; but he caught the child without 
any effort, and then turned upon her a 
look that said more than words. 

“ As if I would take any chances,” he ' 
declared with self-confidence ; then added : 


The Princess Surrenders . 249 

“ I thought you never thought of people 
by their Christian names, Princess.” 
Lenore colored a little as she answered : 

“ And you never let anything pass. 
You know I didn’t mean to.” 

“ It is only people who are afraid who 
let things pass,” he replied. Then, setting 
the child on his shoulder, he went on, a 
minute later : “You have not had any 
thing to eat and look tired out. Stay 
here and I will bring you something.” 

“ I am tired,” she answered, sitting down 
on the bench again, with a delicious sense 
of being cared for. He lingered a little 
as he said : 

“ I don’t dare go unless you will promise 
to be here when I come back.” 

“ I will unless something unexpected 
happens.” 

“ I should n’t want you to be a Casa- 
bianca,” he returned, as he walked off with 
Rene kissing his hand to the Princess 
from his shoulder. 

In a few minutes he came back carry- 
ing a tray with various eatables and drink- 
ables on it. 


250 


The Broken Ring . 


“ I let the waiter bring it only to the 
edge of the grove/’ he remarked. 

“ What have you done with Rene ? ” 
asked the Princess. 

“ I handed him over to his nurse, much 
to his disgust. He went off howling. It 
is a pity that so bright a child should be 
so abominably spoiled. Well, Princess, 
does my choice satisfy you ? I never 
hoped for such good luck as another 
picnic with you,” he added as he spread a 
napkin on her lap. 

“We did n’t have napkins, and you have 
my role,” said Lenore. “We must stay 
here but a few minutes though. You 
know we are not in the backwoods now, 
and somebody might come this way.” 

“ I don’t believe so. I came only be- 
cause I was watching you.” 

“ Well, somebody may have been watch- 
ing you, — the Countess, for instance.” 

“ Does Your Highness do me the honor 
of being jealous ? ” Lenore only laughed 
for answer. “ This is a very fortunate 
chance for me, because I am going home 
in the morning,” he went on. 


The Princess Surrenders . 251 

“ Going home ! ” she exclaimed, hardly 
trying to hide the dismay she felt. 

“Yes. I have had a letter from — I 
mean I have heard that the King is feel- 
ing very ill. I am much afraid that he has 
not long to live. A special messenger 
brought me a summons to return this 
afternoon.” 

“You speak as if you cared personally,” 
remarked the Princess. 

“ I do. I have a great respect for my 
King, and I could not be fonder of him if 
he were my next of kin.” 

“ I wish he were,” she exclaimed im- 
pulsively ; then tried to explain it away 
by saying : “ I mean that I think you 
would make a good king.” 

“ Was that all you meant?” he asked 
earnestly. She dropped her eyes and did 
not answer. “ Did you mean that if 
he were, you would let that little cere- 
mony hold good ? ” he asked in a low 
voice. 

“What if I did?” she returned. “It 
is not true, so it does not matter.” 

“It does to me. You think you could 


252 The Broken Ring. 

have loved me if things had been other- 
wise ? ” he added. 

“ I know I could/' she answered 
frankly. 

Just at that moment voices were heard 
approaching them. The Princess held up 
her hand warningly. 

“Princess,” he began solemnly, “to- 
night is the last time you will ever see 
Raoul Delorme ” 

“ The last time ? ” she interrupted, won- 
deringly. 

“Yes, my Princess, the last time. I 
promise you that.” 

“ Some one is surely coming and we 
must go,” she exclaimed ; then added : 
“ But I can’t say good-by to you forever 
just like this in a minute. I should like 
to express some of the pleasure I have 
had in our friendship,” she explained, 
looking him straight in the eyes. 

“ I leave before six, so there is no help 
for it,” he replied. She hesitated a second, 
then said boldly : 

“ I will meet you to-night after this is 
over in the garden.” The next second 


The Princess Surrenders . 253 

she had disappeared among the trees. 
The voices of the intruders died away in 
the distance, and Raoul was left smiling 
to himself, well pleased at the result of 
their interview. He had made a bold 
throw, and had hardly dared hope he 
would win. He had not believed that the 
Princess, even if 4 :aken by surprise with 
the news of his departure, would forget 
her dignity sufficiently to propose a pri- 
vate interview, or even to consent to one 
if he suggested it. 

There was just the faintest trace of 
coming morning in the sky when the Prin- 
cess let herself out of the door at the foot 
of the turret. Rapul approached her 
from out the shadow of some shrubbery, 
but she put her finger on her lips — it was 
just light enough for him to see the ges- 
ture — and led the way across the garden 
to a little summer-house overgrown with 
vines. Orange trees in tubs were stand- 
ing in front of it, and the air was sweet 
with their fragrance. Lenore sat down 
on a bench and motioned Raoul to a seat 
at the other end of it. 


The Broken Ring. 


254 


Jt 


“ I have been wishing ever since that I 
had n’t proposed meeting you,” she began 
coldly. 

“ I knew you would be, proud woman 
that you are,” he answered. “ And I 
suppose you took off your beautiful gown 
so that the interview might seem more 
commonplace. I don’t like the one you 
have on.” 

“ I did n’t want you to,” she replied, 
with a little laugh. “ Besides, I am not 
going to get pneumonia for any man. I 
had to see you in some way or other, and 
this was the only way that occurred to 
me,” she continued after a moment’s 
silence. “ I wanted to find out why I 
should never see you again — and there 
was something else besides.” 

“ Let ’s take the something else first,” 
he suggested. “What is it, my Prin- 
cess ? ” She hesitated before she began : 

“ When we don’t understand something 
our friends do, something that seems in- 
consistent and out of keeping with all you 
know of them, I think the right thing is 
to ask them about it, don’t you ? ” 


The Princess Surrenders . 


255 


“ Indeed I do. What have I done that 
you don’t like ? ” 

“It does n’t seem a bit like you, and 
whenever I have had doubts of you 
before, I have always found myself mis- 
taken. It is just this,” she broke off sud- 
denly. “You said you were a friend of 
Prince Karl’s, and you come here as his 
ambassador, to forward his suit, and yet 
you do anything but that, and make un- 
comfortable insinuations against him into 
the bargain. It has troubled me, I con- 
fess.” Raoul laughed a little relieved 
laugh that made her feel all was right 
immediately. 

“ Princess,” he began, “ you have told 
me more than once that you trusted me ; 
well, I am going to ask you to do so now. 
I know it seems dishonorable, but I assure 
you, although you cannot understand it 
now and I cannot explain it, that it is not 
really so. Some day this seeming dis- 
loyalty will be explained. Do you believe 
me?” 

“ I think I should believe anything you 
told me,” she answered simply. “ And I 


256 


The Broken Ring. 


am so glad, for I have n’t liked it. And 
now tell me another thing,” she went on, 
“ an unimportant little thing, but I have 
wondered about it so much. Why did 
you say you had n’t any wife that morning 
after you had been delirious if you believed 
me to be your wife ? ” 

“ I said it without thinking, and then, 
of course, I had to let it stand. I could n’t 
explain.” 

“ You knew about it at the time then ? ” 
Yes ; I had known it for some time.” 

“ For just how long ? Not when you 
saw me in Paris surely ? ” 

“ No, not until we were at the mill. 
Do you remember the afternoon when 
Kriegmann inspected you in my place?” 
he asked. 

“ Yes, perfectly.” 

“ Well, I was told that day. You will 
know all about that some day, too, but I 
can’t tell you now.” 

“Another mystery. ’You are full of 
them. But I don’t see how you are going 
to explain all these things to me if I am 
never to see you again. You have n’t 


The Princess Surrenders . 257 

told me yet why that is to be,” she broke 
off suddenly. “ And so this is the begin- 
ning of the end,” she went on presently as 
he did not reply. All her curiosity seemed 
to have left her. “ This is the end of our 
friendship. It has been a great pleasure 
to me, as you know ; and if ever I can do 
anything for you, I am sure you will let 
me know. If ever you should want to 

marry a girl who has no fortune ” 

“ Princess, you are cruel,” he broke in 
vehemently. “ How could I ever marry 
when I have the shadow of a right to call 
you my wife ? You talk very lightly of 
the end, of the pleasures of our friend- 
ship, and all that sort of nonsense, but do 
you really believe for one second that it 
has been friendship between us? That 
was a convenient word only so long as 
we said good-night, it meant we were to 
meet again in the morning. Good-night 
means something quite different now. Do 
you realize that it means never to see 
each other again ? It is not only the 
sharp pain of parting, but the dull ache of 
longing that never stops for a moment 


The Broken Ring . 


258 

day or night. You asked me why we 
were never to see each other again and I 
will answer you now. I once told you 
that I did n’t have any pride, and when I 
said that, I lied. I am too proud to ac- 
cept the only position you let me have. I 
am too proud to be treated like a casual 
acquaintance by the woman whom I might 
call my wife, too proud to have that tie 
ignored by you, too proud to let you 
make so great a distinction between my- 
self and my station. And, then, I cannot 
stand it any longer. I would rather go 
where I shall never see you again. It is 
dreadful to be so near you and to know 
that you will never give in, that wealth 
and rank are of more importance to you 
than my love.” 

“ I believe you think still that I care 
for you,” Lenore remarked, trying to 
speak indifferently, but making a failure 
of it, for her voice trembled. 

“ I don’t think it. I know it,” he re- 
plied calmly. “ Can you deny it ? Look 
me in the eyes and tell me that you do 
not love me, and I will believe it.” But 


The Princess Surrenders . 259 

the Princess had buried her face in her 
hands. 

“ Lenore,” cried Raoul, “ let me have 
my promise back.” She raised her eyes, 
looked in his for a second, and then flung 
both her arms about his neck. 

“ Now you are free,” she sobbed, bury- 
ing her face in his shoulder. “ I can’t 
help it. I have tried so hard, but it is too 
much for me.” 

“ I don’t think I should ever have given 
in except for the knowledge that I was 
really your wife after all,” she said, half 
an hour later. “ Someway, the idea of a 
princess falling in love with a captain in 
the army is so incongruous. I am afraid 
it will make us ridiculous, all the same. 
The papers will make a great many vulgar 
jokes about us.” 

“ If it is only us, I don’t care,” he an- 
swered. “ Do you really mean, Lenore, 
that you will come to me openly, before 
all the world ? ” 

“ I certainly should n’t in any other 
way,” she answered proudly ; then went 
on : “I had better tell you that I still 


26 o 


The Broken Ring. 


don’t like the idea at all, and I still think 
I could conquer myself, if it were not for 
your side of the question. I simply 
could n’t break faith with you now. I 
never should have another tranquil mo- 
ment, my conscience would trouble me 
so.” He stooped and kissed her, and she 
broke off abruptly : “ What utter non- 
sense ! As if I could live without you, 
now that I have once given in to it and 
have felt how sweet it is. I will live with 
you in a hut if necessary, but I must be 
with you somewhere. I have never loved 
any one before, and I feel as if I were one 
of those logs that I used to watch from 
the window of the mill when the river 
used to sweep them down over the falls. 
I hope it will not be over the falls, but 
even if it is, I have got to go.” 

“ Are you sure the sacrifice will not 
seem too big after I have gone ? ” Raoul 
asked when the day was beginning to 
break and the shadows to flee away. 
Lenore looked at him reproachfully. 

“ Do I seem like a woman who re- 
pents ? ” she demanded. 


The Princess Surrenders . 


261 


“ My dear girl, — I may call you ‘my 
dear girl * now, I suppose ? ” he said, with 
a suggestive smile. 

“You have called me worse things than 
that in the last hour. Your mock homage 
has always amused me, Raoul,” she broke 
off. “ At least, it used to make me angry 
at first. I felt as if we were two children 
playing that I was a princess. You have 
never felt an atom of real respect for my 
rank, or treated me, in spite of a few 
forms and ceremonies, any differently 
than you would have done if we had been 
of the same rank.” 

“You see I knew you were my wife, 
and that made a certain difference ; it 
made you seem less far above me,” he 
explained. 

“ And you won’t tell me how you came 
to find it out ? Don’t you know that a 
man ought not to have any secrets from 
his wife ?” 

“ I won’t have when you are my wife in 
dead earnest,” he answered, when he had 
recovered a little from the raptures her 
words caused in him. 


262 


The Broken Ring . 


“ And you would n’t tell me how you 
came to have Queen Lenore’s picture 
either,” the Princess remarked reflectively. 

“You shall know all about it some day, 
my beloved. Just have a little patience. 

I assure you solemnly that there is nothing 
in the least discreditable in any of my 
mysteries.” 

“ As if I needed to be told that,” she 
murmured. 

“ Now I must be off. I have stayed to 
the last second,” he said abruptly a few 
minutes later. 

“You are not going now?” she de- 
manded. 

“ I must. It is a question of duty.” 

“And when shall I see you again ? ” 'she 
asked with a tear or two rolling down he^ 
cheeks. If her Maids of Honor could 
have seen their proud mistress now ! 

“ I cannot tell, dear one,” he answered 
as he kissed them away. “ You may not 
even hear from me for some time. I do 
not know if I can manage it, for I have 
some grave duties before me ; but only* 
believe in me. You will never mistrust 


The Princess Surrenders . 263 


me ? I give you my word of honor that 
everything shall be cleared up before I 
ask you for anything more.” Theywere 
standing now, and Lenore put one of her 
hands on each of his shoulders and looked 
him straight in the eyes as she said : 

“ I have n’t treated you so well as I 
might, but I am going to make it up to 
you. I shall not let myself have a regret 
or a misgiving, and whenever you want 
your wife, I will come to you ; but it must 
be openly, remember that. You must 
claim me before all the world. I will not 
act as if I were ashamed of my choice.” 

Five minutes later she was alone in the 
summer-house. An early sunbeam was 
invading it, and outside the earliest pipe 
of half-awakened birds had developed into 
a full chorus. The scent of the orange 
blossoms came in sweeter than ever, and 
the Princess, looking around her at a new 
world, saw that it was good. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE CORONATION OF KING KARL. 

A WEEK later, a small package was 
brought to the Princess as she sat 
alone at work in the summer-house 
in the garden, with the word that the 
bearer wished particularly to see her. She 
opened the package and found a stocking 
of coarse gray wool such as peasants wear. 
Her heart gave a big leap and she ordered 
the messenger to be brought to her imme- 
diately. It was Sergeant Kriegmann in 
civilian’s clothes, accompanied by Balder. 
The dog looked at her suspiciously for a 
moment, then smelled her feet and hands, 
and then, with a yelp of satisfaction, 
jumped on her and began licking her 
face. Lenore released herself with diffi : 
culty. 

“ Captain Delorme told me he never 

264 


The Coronation of King KarL 265 

forgot any one,” she said triumphantly to 
the Sergeant, whom she had not greeted 
before, both being too absorbed in watch- 
ing the dog’s actions. Then she dismissed 
the page and pursuaded Balder to lie down 
quietly beside her. 

“ Well, Sergeant,” she began graciously, 
“ How does the world go with you since 
we left the mill ?” 

“ Very well, Your Highness.” The Ser- 
geant was evidently overpowered by the 
unaccustomed magnificence around him. 

“ And how is the Captain ? ” she con- 
tinued. 

“ I have n’t seen him for several months 
until yesterday, when he came to Fried- 
berg and told me to take Balder and this 
letter to Your Highness. He told me to 
send that package in first and that Your 
Highness would see me.” He took a thick 
letter out of his pocket and handed it to 
the Princess. She received it indifferently 
and laid it on top of her work. 

“ And was he looking well ?” she asked. 

“ He was looking pale and thin, Your 
Highness, but he said he had been sitting 


266 


The Broken Ring . 


up with a sick relative. . And I was to 
wait here until to-morrow in case Your 
Highness should have anything to send 
back. The Captain must think a heap 
of Your Highness to be willing to give 
up Balder,” he added naively. Evidently 
there was no doubt in the Sergeant’s mind 
as to on which side the superiority lay. 

“ I suppose the Captain found so big a 
dog troublesome when he has no settled 
home, and he knew I was so fond of him 
and would take the best of care of him,” 
she explained, patting the dog’s head as 
it lay against her knee. “ Well, Sergeant, 
times are changed,” she went on. “ I 
used to be your guest and now you are 
mine. We must see that you are treated 
well and have nothing to complain of. 
You shall go and have something to eat 
now and this afternoon I will send for 
you, and we will have a long talk about 
old times ; and to-morrow I will give you 
a letter of thanks to take back to the 
Captain.” She called her page and gave, 
the Sergeant into his care, and, being left 
alone once more, proceeded to open her 


The Coronation of King Karl ’ 267 

letter, the first love-letter she had ever 
received. She had never even seen a line 
of her lover’s writing before, and the satis- 
faction of finding that he was the same on 
paper as in every-day life was great. The 
reading of the letter took the rest of the 
morning, and in the afternoon came the 
pleasure, almost as great, of answering it. 

“It seems so strange that I should be 
writing to you in this way,” she wrote at 
length. “ A week ago I was so sure that 
nothing would ever make me give in to 
my feelings for you. I would die rather 
than forget my high estate, and now my 
only wonder is that I did n’t give in ages 
ago. It is so unspeakably delicious. 


“ There is so much I should like to ask 
you about, so much I-should like to tell 
you, and there was so little time. I did n’t 
know it then, but I see now that I have 
been storing up things in my mind ever 
since the old days in the mill when, from 
Louison’s window, I used to watch you 
giving orders to your men or playing with 
Balder, believing all the time, or choosing 
to believe, that it was only an aesthetic 


268 


The Broken Ring. 


pleasure in your good looks kept me 
there. I used to wonder what you would 
think about one thing and another.” 

There was a great deal more in the 
same strain, which goes to show that 
princesses in love are very much like 
other girls, though Raoul did not think 
so when he received this letter. 

He had said in his that he would not 
have any means of communicating with 
her for some little time, so the Princess 
was not alarmed that she heard nothing 
for the next ten days. On the eleventh, 
the whole court was startled by the news 
of the King of Konigreich’s death. He 
had been ill so many years that everybody 
had given up expecting it. But now he 
was dead at last, and King Karl reigned 
in his stead. 

The Duke had confidently expected a 
renewal of that Prince’s proposals after 
Delorme had returned, for he had put a 
favorable construction on his daughter’s 
friendliness with his ambassador. He had 
been surprised at first and then angry 
when none had come, but the King’s 


The Coronation of King KarL 269 

death explained it all ; and when an invi- 
tation arrived for himself and his daughter 
and their suite to be present at the coro- 
nation of the new King, he was graciously 
pleased to accept, and insisted on Lenore’s 
accepting too, which, greatly to his sur- 
prise, she did without a protest. The 
Princess herself was a little conscience- 
stricken about the disappointment which 
she thought was in store for him. It 
seemed to her, also, that it was extremely 
foolish for her to go to the coronation, 
thus running the risk of awkward compli- 
cations with Prince Karl, who would 
probably see hope for himself in her 
coming at all ; still she could not resist 
the chance of being in the same atmos- 
phere as Delorme once more. If only 
she knew the truth of his relations with 
the Prince, she felt she would not be so 
much at sea. Or if he would only send 
her some word as to his wishes in the 
matter, though probably he, like herself, 
would not be able to resist the temptation 
of seeing her again, no matter what the 
consequences might be. 


2 jo The Broken Ring, 

The coronation was to be an imposing 
ceremony. Konigreich was prosperous, 
at peace with all the world, its ancient 
difficulties with Herzogthum settled for 
the present, and everything good was ex- 
pected of the new King. The late King 
had been a good ruler, a man who judged 
for himself and judged wisely ; and the 
confidence he had shown himself to feel 
in his successor gave faith to the people. 
General Malakoff, too, their idol, was en- 
thusiastic in his praises. Accordingly, no 
expense was to be spared to make the 
occasion a memorable one. 

The Duke and the Princess and their 
suite arrived in a special train, and were 
driven in a coach drawn by six magnifi- 
cent horses to the oak grove where these 
ceremonies had taken place ever since, 
hundreds of years before, Konigreich had 
won her liberty, and under its shade, on 
the evening of a decisive battle, had in- 
vested the royal power in the man to 
whom she owed her liberty, and his de-» 
scendants for ever and ever. Lenore was 
surprised to find that they were given the 


The Coronation of King Karl. 271 

seats of honor above all the distinguished 
visitors, until she remembered the proba- 
ble reason for the distinction, and wished 
she could retreat to a less prominent posi- 
tion. Every inch of ground within the 
radius of a quarter of a mile had its occu- 
pant, every limb of the ancient oaks over- 
head swarmed with human beings. The 
waiting was long and tedious, and the 
Princess looked in vain for the man she 
longed to see. 

At length the bands struck up the 
solemn measures of the national hymn ; 
the people took it up as they fell back 
and made way for the procession that was 
to present to them their future King, 
whom so few of them had ever seen. 
First came the royal guard in their blue 
and gold uniforms, followed by all the 
officials of the court, glittering with 
orders and decorations ; next followed 
the priests in their flowing vestments, and 
after them the King. Lenore looked no 
farther, for she caught sight of the man 
she was looking for, and it was fully a 
minute before she grasped the fact that it 


272 The Broken Ring. 

was he, Raoul Delorme, a captain in the 
Konigreich army, who was the central 
figure of all this pomp and ceremony. 
There he walked in his rich coronation 
robes, supported by the Archbishop on 
one side and the Commander-in-chief of 
the army on the other, apparently as calm 
and composed as when he had ascended 
the rickety stairs of the old mill and 
stepped across the foot-worn threshold of 
her apartment. What did it all mean ? 
Where was Prince Karl ? She had no 
time to notice that the Duke and their 
attendants were as much astounded as 
herself. She felt faint, and everything 
revolved around her ; but the Countess 
Hilda, who sat behind her, brought her 
to her senses by giving a nervous, hys- 
terical giggle, and throwing herself into 
the arms of the man who sat next to her. 
The Duke seized his daughter by the 
arm and shook it a little as he gasped 
out : 

“ Did you know it, Lenore ? Did you 
know it all the time ? ” 

“ Did I know what ? ” she asked calmly, 


The Coronation of King Karl. 273 


for she thought her senses might be de- 
ceiving her. 

“ That Delorme was Prince Karl him- 
self?” 

“ I had not an idea of it,” she answered 
truthfully, and even now she scarcely real- 
ized it, at the same time that she was 
already wondering why she had never 
suspected it. 

A hush fell on the assembled crowd. 
The King was ascending the steps of the 
platform covered with crimson cloth and 
draped with flags, trophies of the con- 
quests that the country had made in 
former times. The Archbishop and the 
General, who had preceded, advanced 
solemnly to receive him, a prayer was 
made over the heads of the kneeling mul- 
titude, the sacred oil was placed on his 
forehead, and the crown on his head. 

“ Long live the King ! Long live King 
Karl ! ” shouted the people. The King 
stepped forward and gazed around him. 
His eyes met Lenore’s for the first time 
and flashed a message which hers 
answered over the space between them. 

18 


The Broken Ring . 


274 

When the tumult had subsided again, he 
began to speak to his people. He spoke 
of the late King, of his life and sorrows, 
of what he had done for the people and 
what he had hoped to do and could not 
for the little strength that had been his. 
He spoke of him, not formally, but affec- 
tionately and simply, and the people ap- 
plauded, for they had loved the dead 
King. Then he said something of what 
he himself hoped to do, and a little of 
himself and his life. 

“ I want you to know from my own lips 
who and what I am,” he explained, “ for 
there have been many false reports.” 
Next, he paid a royal tribute to General 
Malakoff for his care of himself as well as 
his services to his country, and the people 
shouted as if they never meant to stop. 

“ And now, my people,” the new King 
continued, “ there is one thing that I 
want to tell you myself. I know that 
princes and kings are supposed to love 
and marry for state reasons and not for 
warm, spontaneous, human love, and it is 
this that makes so many a royal life, with 


The Coronation of King Karl. 275 

its splendor and luxury that some of you 
envy so much, the least enviable existence 
on earth. Mine, I am thankful to say, 
will not be one of these ; for I have 
wooed and won a wife for myself. ,, 

A breathless hush fell on the multitude, 
and although the King seemed hardly to 
speak louder than in a drawing-room, 
every syllable was heard to the farthest 
limits of the grove. He turned so that 
he could face Lenore as she sat, every 
pulse throbbing in anxious expectation, 
on the highest seats of all, to the right of 
the platform. “ You all of you know the 
Princess Lenore of Herzogthum, by repu- 
tation if not by sight,” he continued in 
his clear, friendly voice. u You know that 
she was your prisoner a short time ago ; 
but what you do not know is that I, your 
King, was her jailer. There is an old 
mill in the mountains, set deep in the 
forest, by the side of a rushing river, 
which I am going to buy if money can do 
it ; for it was there that we learned to 
love one another with no thought of rank 
or station. I afterwards visited her father’s 


276 The Broken Ring . 

court in the guise of an ambassador for 
myself, Prince Karl, and not knowing 
who or what I was, she agreed to marry 
me, with the one stipulation that I claim 
her before all the world, though she did 
not know that her request would be 
granted so literally. She would have 
nothing underhand, and she would not 
give people a chance to say that she was 
ashamed of her choice. There were 
many things about my life that she did 
not understand, mysteries and conceal- 
ments, but she believed in me in spite of 

all. And now ” He advanced towards 

the side of the platform where the Prin- 
cess was sitting, red and white by turns, 
and trying in vain to stop the beating of 
her heart with her hand. “ And now 
what she promised to me, a poor soldier 
in the army, I, the King, wish to ask from 
her before all the world. Lenore, you 
will not refuse the King the love you 
promised the soldier? You will be my 
wife, my Queen ?” He stopped at the 
foot of the steps that led up to her seat 
and held out his hand. She rose and 


The Coronation of King Karl. 277 

descended slowly with a firm step ; and 
pausing beside her lover, placed her hand 
in his. For a second, neither saw the up- 
turned sea of faces, only each other. He 
led her forth to the centre of the platform, 
and the Archbishop, stepping in front of 
them, pronounced the solemn words of 
betrothal while the multitude dropped on 
their knees and prayed for a blessing on 
their King and Queen. 


THE END. 



THE UNIVERSITY SERIES 

STORIES OF COLLEGE LIFE 


I. Ibarvarb Stories. Sketches of the Undergraduate. 

By W. K. Post. Fourth edition. 121110, paper, 50 
cts.; cloth |i 00 

“ Mr. Post’s manner of telling these tales is in its way inimitable. 
The atmosphere of the book in its relation to the localities where the 
scenes were laid is well-nigh perfect. The different types of under- 
graduates are clearly drawn, and there is a dramatic element in most of 
the stories that is very welcome. It goes without saying that Harvard 
men will find keen pleasure in this volume, while for those who desire 
a faithful picture of certain phases of American student life it offers a 
noteworthy fund of instruction and entertainment .” — Literary News. 

“ The undergraduate who haunts the classic shades of Cambridge has 
often been sketched, but never on the whole with so much piquancy 
and fidelity to truth as by Mr. Post .” — Boston Beacon. 

“Not since the days of Hammersmith have we had such a vivid 
picture of college life as Mr. W. K. Post has given us in this book. 
Unpretentious in their style, the stories are mere sketches, yet withal 
the tone is so genuine, the local color so truly ‘ crimson,’ as to make the 
book one of unfailing interest .” — Literary World. 

II. JJJale UJatltS, By J. S. Wood. Illustrated, i2mo. 

$1 00 

“ College days are regarded by most educated men as the cream of 
their lives, sweet with excellent flavor. They are not dull and tame, even 
to the most devoted student, and this is a volume filled with the pure 
cream of such existence, and many ‘ a college joke to cure the dumps’ 
is given. It is a bright, realistic picture of college life, told in an easy 
conversational, or descriptive style, and cannot fail to genuinely interest 
the reader who has the slightest appreciation of humor. The volume is 
illustrated and is just the book for an idle or lonely hour .” — Los Angeles 
Times. 

hi. TEbe Babe, 35.H. Stories of Life at Cambridge 
University. By Edward F. Benson. (In press.) 

IV. B iprincetOmaiL A Story of Undergraduate Life 
at the College of New Jersey. By James Barnes. 
(In press.) 


G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, 


NEW YORK. 


LONDON. 


WORKS BY 

RODRIGUES OTTOLENGUI 


Ube Crime Of tbe Centura. i6mo, $1.00. Hudson Library 
No. 12, paper 50 cts. 

“ It is a tribute to the author’s skill, that he never loses a reader. 
For fertility in imagining a complex plot, and holding the reader 
in ignorance of its solution until the very end, we know of no one 
who can rival him.” — Toledo Blade. 

“ The book deals with the subject involved in the most powerful 
style that the author has shown. There is more purpose and thought 
in it than in the other books.” — Boston Globe. 

“ It is one of the best told stories of its kind we have read, and the 
reader will not be able to guess its ending easily. It is ingeniously 
worked out without giving away the true solution, and those who 
enjoy a well- written detective story should not fail to read it.” — 
Boston Times. 

Bn Brtlst In Crime. l6mo, $1.00; paper 50 cts. 

“One may safely say that it ranks with the best detective novels 
yet published in this country. ” — Boston Times. 

“ ‘An Artist in Crime’ is the best detective story which has been 
published in several years.” — New Haven Palladium. 

B Conflict of lEvlOence. i6mo, $1.00; paper 50 cts. 

“ This particular book is the best of its kind and just what its title 
sets forth. . . . It is a masterpiece of consistent theory, and will 

bear reading at any time and in any place.” — Omaha Excelsior. 

“ An ingenious novel of the detective type. . . . The whole 

book is one of interest, both in construction and in literary execution, 
vastly superior to most of its general class.” — New York Advertiser. 

B /IfcODetn 7 KHl 3 ar&. i6mo, $1.00 ; paper 50 cts. 

“ The plot is ingeniously constructed, and the book is intensely 
exciting.” — Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston. 

“The story is ingenious, the characters are dramatic, and the 
evolution of the plot is natural.” — Boston Times. 


6. p. putnam’s Sons 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 


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